PH Gov’t to establish new agency for OFW assistance
President Rodrigo R. Duterte recently signed a bill creating the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), a “one-stop shop” that will cater to the needs of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) into a law.
Under the Republic Act 11641, An Act creating the Department of Migrant Workers, the DMW shall gather all government agencies dealing with OFWs under one department to simplify the process of working overseas.
The agencies to be reorganized into the DMW are the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Department of Labor and Employment’s International Labor Affairs Bureau and all Overseas Labor Offices, the National Reintegration Center for OFWs, and the National Maritime Polytechnic.
“Today, we make good on our promise for our OFWs to be treated better, with dignity befitting heroes who have kept the country’s economy afloat and their families who stay behind and bear the sacrifice of being apart with their parents and relatives,” said Sen. Joel Villanueva, the primary sponsor of the bill.
