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

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more