By JOCELYN D. MONTEMAYOR and
ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
Malaya
February 13, 2008
PRESIDENT Arroyo ordered the “relaxing” of requirements for the direct hiring of white-collar workers for overseas jobs to ensure the faster processing of their papers, employment and eventual departure.
Arroyo, during the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)-Cabinet Group meeting in Malacañang, ordered Labor Secretary Arturo Brion to revise Memorandum Circular No. 04 whose new rules on direct hiring has already raised an angry howl among overseas workers’ groups.
Arroyo’s order came on the heels of Brion’s announcement last Feb. 8 that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) board which he heads is considering exempting Canada, Hong Kong and Italy from MC No. 4 based on favorable reports from labor attaches on available protection for OFWs there.
The new direct hiring rules under MC No. 4 allow only members of the diplomatic corps, international organizations and government officials at the ministerial level to directly hire and bring workers abroad to work. The party directly hiring the worker is also required to post a $5,000 repatriation bond and a $3,000 performance bond.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the relaxation of requirements would exempt from MC No. 4 OFWs being hired as professionals for white-collar jobs or for “executive positions of top gear corporations and institutions.” He said this means such OFWs can forgo certain requirements like going through a recruitment agency or registering first with the POEA.
“The requirements that are normally undertaken to protect our OFWs from exploitation should not apply to these white collar workers and the distinction is very obvious,” Bunye said, adding that President Arroyo felt that professionals and white-collars are more capable of protecting themselves from being exploited when taking on overseas postings.
“The objective of the POEA is primarily to protect our workers from exploitation. But if additional requirements for registering can impede the professionals who are very clearly, I don’t think they’re prone to abuse or prone to exploitation, perhaps we can waive the requirements or registration to this kind of OFWs,” Bunye said.
Already, however, a new group recently formed by overseas Filipino workers, the Samahan Laban sa Katiwalian ng mga Recruitment Agencies at Patakarang MC-04 (SKRAP-MC04) has led more than 1,000 Filipino domestic helpers and professionals in street protests in Hong Kong.
Coalition spokesperson Dolores Balladares said POEA’s decision to grant exemptions to some countries was simply “a ploy to diffuse protests and to divide and deceive OFWs.” She said the protests will not stop until POEA withdraws MC No. 4.
John Monterona, regional coordinator of Migrante International’s Middle East chapter, also scored the POEA for government’s continued failure to bring home OFWs stranded in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
Monterona said that in Jeddah alone, about a hundred OFWs are living under a bridge while waiting to be repatriated.
In the same meeting at the Palace, President Arroyo also directed the POEA to use the Social Security System card as identification cards for OFWs instead of the Equitable Bank card; DOLE to look at the mental exams given to departing OFWs with the view of minimizing and eventually eliminating the deployment of mentally unstable workers abroad; and Manila International Airport Authority president Alfonso Cusi to make sure that proper courtesies are extended to all passengers, especially OFWs, by all airport personnel.