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PH embassy, consulate to sign retainer with UAE law firms for OFWs

DUBAI: The Philippine Embassy and Consulate General will be signing a contract with UAE law firms as part of efforts to speed up assistance to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) needing help.

This developed following a recent visit by Philippine Foreign Affairs Senior Special Assistant Reynaldo Catapang who was in the UAE this week to review ways to improve the embassy’s and consulate’s Assistance to Nationals (ATN) program.

Providing legal assistance to OFWs has been among campaign promises of incumbent Pres. Rodrigo Duterte. Overseas Filipino Workers and various advocacy groups have long been lamenting that the Philippine government’s fund for the purpose has been a mere fraction of the total remittances. In 2014, OFWs around the world sent home a total of P1.2 trillion; legal assistance fund was P100 million.

“We are taking a pro-active stance on this,” Amb. Constancio R. Vingno, Jr. told The Filipino Times.

For his part, Consul Paul Raymund Cortes said they were finalizing details with the law firm. “The legal retainer is envisioned to assist the consulate in providing support to OFWs under the ATN program,” he said.

According to Cortes, the consulate receives a daily average of 20 walk-in ATN cases; the same can be said with the embassy, according to Vice Consul Rowena Daquipil, its ATN section head.

ATN cases range from labor problems, including runaways  to brushes with the law.

Catapang is from the Philippine Department of Foreign Affair’s Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs. The embassy has tapped services of Al Shamsi law firm, said Vingno; the consulate, for its part, will be signing a contract with Walid Al Thevan law firm, according to Cortes.

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