Duterte approves IRR of the Department of Migrant Workers

By SUNDY LOCUS, GMA News President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the proposed implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the transition committee of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), its member agencies said Wednesday. In a hearing conducted by the House committee on overseas workers affairs, six government agencies including the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) confirmed the validity of a memorandum supposedly from Malacañang stating that the President has already approved the IRR of the Republic Act No. 11641 or “An Act Creating the Department of Migrant Workers”. “In recognition of the authority of the Transition Committee to formulate IRR pursuant to Section 23(A) of RA No. 11641, the President interposes no objection to the submitted IRR and cleared its immediate publication,” the memorandum dated April 18 reads. This effectively nullifies the IRR published by DMW Secretary Abdullah Mama-o which the committee earlier appealed for Duterte to declare void. Mama-o has confirmed receipt of a photocopy of the memorandum. He, however, refuted its veracity saying it was not Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea who signed it. He further argued that his published IRR is based on the law and should not easily be discarded. “This was published in accordance with the provision of the law. And therefore, this IRR shall stay until it is declared null and void by a court of law," he said. Former Labor undersecretary Susan “Toots” Ople, for her part, asked the department officials to settle their dispute as she underscored that overseas Filipinos are the ones affected by it. Her appeal was echoed by other migrant workers groups who said the DMW should focus on the issues of Filipino workers. “We don’t deserve this. This is precisely the antithesis of having a DMW. And the reason why we are pushed as the stakeholders for the DMW is to unify all actions, all decisions, all policies related to our OFWs," she said. The creation of the DMW was signed into law last December 2021. The objective of the agency is to streamline the bureaucracy for overseas Filipinos with seven other agencies under several different departments “merging and transferring” to the proposed department which will now be tasked to “assume and perform all their powers and functions.” -- BAP, GMA News

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