PNoy forms panel to craft govt policy on distressed OFWs




Tags: Benigno Aquino III
President Benigno Aquino III has ordered the creation of an inter-agency committee that will determine the government's policy on giving assistance to overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in distress.

Administrative Order No. 41, signed March 3, seeks to create an inter-agency committee that will “study, prepare and implement the guidelines on giving governmental assistance OFWs in distress.”

It said the panel shall also study “the parity of punishment under the laws of the foreign country and the Philippines, and any applicable treaties allowing service of sentence in a convicted person’s home country, and review the performance of the legal counsels who represent OFWs in distress.”

In his order, Aquino said there “is a need to rationalize the policy of the government in giving assistance to OFWs in distress.”  

He added that the creation of the committee “can harmonize and streamline the efforts of government to address the needs of said OFWs.”

According to the AO, the panel shall be headed by the Vice President of the Philippines and shall be composed of representatives from the Office of the Executive Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Justice, Department of Budget and Management, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health, and the Presidential Management Staff, as members.

They shall be required to formulate and submit to the President no later than March 10, 2014 guidelines on the following:
 
  • Mechanisms on how the government could assist OFWs in distress and their families, while in the country where they are detained, and once repatriated in the Philippines, such assistance as may include but not limited to the medical, legal, psychosocial, and financial aspects of the case;
  • Criteria and justification for considering financial assistance to OFWs in distress, and identification of fund sources;
  • Process of reviewing cases of OFWs in distress and recommending actions for each case;
  • Coordination and/or creation of community support organizations for OFWs as well as the possible creation of a funding support system for OFWs in distress; and
  • Identification of the process for dealing with incidental issues arising from the principal criminal case involving OFWs, such as consumption of alcohol, live-in relationships, and other activities considered illegal in the area(s) where the crime was committed.

Last February, Malacañang said Aquino decided to form the panel to have “clear guidelines” on how government should deal with OFWs concerning blood money, or the money paid in compensation to the family of someone who has been killed. — Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMA News

Tags: Benigno Aquino III

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

POPCOM, gagamit ng ‘digital platforms’ para pagtibayin ang mga ugnayang pampamilya

Mas pinalalawig ng Komisyon sa Populasyon at Pagpapaunlad (POPCOM) ang adhikain nitong pagpapalaganap at pagpapabuti ng pakikipag-ugnayan ng mga nakakatandang Pilipino sa kanilang mga anak na nagdadalaga at nagbibinata. Nitong Setyembre 21, ang POPCOM ay nagsagawa ng isang “parent-teen talk webinar” gamit ang Zoom, kung saan ang isang “interactive program” ang nagbigay ng naaayon na kaalaman at kasanayan sa mga magulang, habang tumulong ito sa mga anak na teenager na maabot ang kanilang buong potensyal. Hinikayat din nito ang mga nanay at tatay na sumali sa malayang usapan, lalo na sa mga usapin ukol sa sex at sekswalidad, na nakikitang makakatulong upang bumaba ang mga bilang ng mga pagbubuntis sa hanay ng mga kabataan. Maaaring mapanood ang webinar sa https://youtu.be/lZ9jrJCjYas. Ayon kay Ikalawang Kalihim (Undersecretary) Juan Antonio A. Perez III, MD, MPH, “ang webinar ay naging isang tagapag-simula at ‘padaluyan’ ng pag-uu
Read more

UP Diliman Professors Share Scientists’ Procurement Struggles at Senate Hearing

By Harvey Sapigao Senate hearing of the revised procurement law (Photo credit: Senate of the Philippines) College of Science (CS) Dean Giovanni Tapang held up a little white device as he finished his presentation. “This is a ₱150,000 component,” he described. “Isa lang gumagawa nito sa buong mundo, pero ang hirap pilitin sila na magregister sa PhilGEPS,” he continued, referring to the requirement that foreign companies must first register to the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) before they can sell products to local scientists. Marine Science Institute (MSI) Deputy Director Dr. Irene Rodriguez explained that the small device is a resin that filters metals in water. “May budget tayo,” she said, “pero ang problema ko ay ‘yung resin na ito.” This and other bottlenecks brought about by the procurement law, or the Government Procurement Reform Act (RA 9184), slow down research and development in the country. UPD leaders were invited to the Senate he
Read more

Biden said set to make push for demilitarized Palestinian state as part of new doctrine ---By LAZAR BERMAN

New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, who’s close to the US administration, says emerging doctrine would include Saudi-Israeli normalization, 2-state solution, and campaign against Iran US President Joe Biden’s administration is homing in on a new doctrine involving an unprecedented push to immediately advance the creation of a demilitarized but viable Palestinian state, The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman reported on Thursday. The plan, Friedman wrote, “would involve some form of US recognition of a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that would come into being only once Palestinians had developed a set of defined, credible institutions and security capabilities to ensure that this state was viable and that it could never threaten Israel.” White House officials “have been consulting experts inside and outside the US government about different forms this recognition of Palestinian statehood might take,” revealed Friedman. What he termed the new “Biden Doctrin
Read more