President Rodrigo Duterte recently signed a law that mandates the distribution of free handbooks that contains information pertaining to the right and responsibilities of each Filipino migrant worker.
This Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) Handbook Law, also identified as Republic Act No. 11227, appoints government agencies, particularly Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to provide every Filipino who is working abroad with this important resource.
The handbook includes basic information regarding the living conditions in different countries where Filipino workers are planning to go, according to Gulf News.
It is said that the law was signed since February 22 but it was only made to the public last March 2. The legislation mandates the POEA to publish, develop and disseminate the said handbook.
The principal author of this law, Senator Manny Pacquiao thinks that it is the obligation of the government to ensure that Filipino workers must understand all the important things before going to the country that they are planning to work on.
“We want to equip our OFWs with the necessary information they can access once they are out there in the global marketplace,” says Pacquiao.
“In the face of an increasing number of abuses against OFWs, perhaps, we can go back to the basics by equipping our workers abroad with the right information at the right time and in the right way,” says Senator Joel Villanueva, sponsor of the bill and chairman of the Senate Committee.
The handbook also contains the reintegration once they decide to return to the Philippines.
