POEA gets back power to renew recruiters' licenses

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) is back in business. It can once again approve or disapprove the renewal of licenses of recruiting firms.

This came Friday when the POEA board overturned its policy of giving a full blanket authority to the secretary of labor to approve the renewal of license of manpower agencies sending Filipino labor abroad.

POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz confirmed that this decision was reached when the agency conducted its board meeting last Friday.

A board decision in December gave former Labor Secretary Arturo Brion the authority to approve the licenses of recruitment firms.

That job was previously assigned to the POEA.

That resolution went into effect on January this year.

Under Brion's term, “additional requirements" like suspending the renewal of an agency’s permit if it has a single pending labor case were imposed against recruiters which resulted in the suspension of 50 license renewals from January to March.

Recruiters protested saying that Brion’s strict rules would severely work against the deployment of Filipino skills abroad.

In March, the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters, Inc. (FAME) wrote to new Labor Secretary Marianito Roque urging him to consider moving back to the old procedure of license renewal for recruitment firms.

“The decision, though long overdue, is welcome news and that is good for the overseas recruitment sector. It could have averted a disaster in terms of lower deployment numbers for the second half of 2008," said Eduardo Mahiya, FAME’s president.

“I am very glad and thankful that Sec. Roque and Administrator Baldoz had seen the wisdom of the industry’s position that the new procedure imposed by former Secretary Brion was anti-market and anti-OFW; that it was a decision based on the whim and caprice of Brion; that it unduly encroaches upon the legitimate powers of the POEA; and only lengthens the already very long bureaucratic red tape within the government’s regulatory bowels. It will not do the country any good," added Mahiya.

Baldoz said the new policy had also set out a condition that pending cases of agencies whose permit are for renewal will have to be resolved within six months and “any delay is not due to fault of the applicant."

The new policy will take effect Tuesday, according to FAME. - GMANews.TV

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