The Philippine House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Joey Salceda has sought that the deployment ban on highly sought-after overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) should be lifted.
Calling on the incoming Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Susan Ople and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma to lift the deployment ban on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), particularly those working in the health care sector as well as other in-demand jobs abroad.
“When the peso is cheap, the easiest logical choice is to earn more foreign currency. There is no easier way to do that, in our case, than to allow OFWs to work wherever they wish. Labor mobility is a human right, after all. And in this case, it’s good economics, too,” Salceda said.
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This came after in November 2021, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) had temporarily suspended the processing and deployment of healthcare workers (HCWs), There is an annual deployment cap of 6,500.
“When you think about it, the policy is hideous. Imagine forcing health care workers to stay at home and just suck it up if they have complaints about low pay here. If the point is to keep them during a health emergency, the best way is to pay them right. Besides, if you don’t pay them enough, they won’t work for our hospitals. They’ll just stay at home. So, as a policy, it’s set for failure.”
