The House of Representatives approved Wednesday on third and final reading the bill creating a Department dedicated for Overseas Filipino Workers.
House Bill No. 5832 or “An Act Creating the Department of Filipinos Overseas and Foreign Employment was approved with 173 affirmative, 11 negative and no abstention.
The Department of Filipinos Overseas and Foreign Employment will serve as an umbrella agency for the issues and concerns of overseas Filipino workers.
The measure tasks the department to formulate, plan, coordinate, promote, administer, implement policies, and undertake systematic national development programs for managing and monitoring the overseas or foreign employment of Filipino workers.
It also designates the P5-billion Assistance To Nationals Fund or the Legal Assistance Fund currently under the Foreign Affairs department to the newly created Department of OFWs.
If turned into law, functions of several agencies will be transferred to the new department, these agencies include the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), all Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO) under the Department of Labor and Employment, the International Labor Affairs Bureau under DOLE, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
The bill also states that the Congressional Oversight Committee have the power to abolish it 10 years after its establishment if Congress deems it unnecessary at that point.
Meanwhile, its counterpart in the Senate, Senate Bill (SB) 202, or the Department of Overseas Filipinos Act of 2019, is still under discussion.
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