DAMMAM: A bill which has been filed at the House of Representatives of the Philippine Congress proposing the creation of a Department of Overseas Workers has been welcomed by Filipino groups in the Kingdom. The proposed bill aims to rationalize the organization and functions of several government agencies related to overseas employment. The new department will prepare, integrate, coordinate, supervise, and control all plans, programs, projects, and activities of the Philippine government relative to overseas employment. The proponents of the bill – congressmen Anthony Rolando T. Golez, Jr. and Ma. Rachel J. Arenas – said in their proposal that the establishment of the Department of Overseas Employment will provide better services to the 10 million overseas Filipinos workers. The passage of the bill would abolish the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWA), the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the Migrant Workers Affairs Division at the Department of Foreign Affairs and other government agencies that are performing overlapping functions concerning Filipino migrant workers. The establishment of the Department of Overseas Workers is supported by the various associations of overseas employment agencies in the Philippines. “We in the overseas employment industry are backing the passage of this long-awaited legislation,” said Jun Joseph Macas, general manager of RRJM International Manpower Services, Inc., in a telephone interview with Saudi Gazette. Migrant workers organizations are also supporting the passage of the bill. “We are supporting this bill and we will be lobbying for its passage,” said Mary Jane Pajarillo Tupas, president of the Overseas Filipino Workers Congress in Eastern Province (OFWC-EP), one of the largest Filipino groups in Saudi Arabia.
