A group of overseas Filipino workers' (OFW) groups urged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last week to veto amendments to the migrant workers' law, which they said are anti-OFW particularly the provision on mandatory insurance. In a letter dated March 4, the groups said while the intent of some of the amendments are laudable, the bill amending the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 or Republic Act 8042 should be vetoed as a whole for several reasons. The groups include members of the Consultative Council on OFWs (CCOFW), or representatives of migrant workers organizations, labor groups, trade unions, seafarers' organizations, policy and research institutes and individual advocates. The bill's provision on compulsory insurance, the groups said, applies only to OFWs deployed through recruitment agencies and excludes the majority of Filipino workers whose services were not contracted through agencies. The group said data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) covering 1990- 2008 show that only an average of 26.6 percent of the total number of OFWs are deployed through recruitment agencies, while the bulk of workers renew their contracts on their own or are hired through government placement or are direct hires. Mandatory insurance should also not be legislated, they argued, saying recruitment or manning agencies must voluntarily insure their workers. “In the case of the seafarers, prior to sailing, they are already enrolled by their employers in a comprehensive insurance policy, together with the vessels they work in. In the final version of the amendatory law, the proposed insurance is extended to seafarers.
