DMW’s new 10-point agenda to run on lesser 2024 budget --- Jeremaiah M. Opiniano, Jasmine B. Manuel - Philstar.com

New Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac will prioritize overseas Filipino workers' (OFWs) protection and financial leverage despite his agency receiving a lower budget this year by some P2.935 billion. After President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. formally appointed Cacdac as DMW secretary last week, the veteran migration management bureaucrat laid-out a ten-point agenda that prioritized a rights-centered approach for migrant workers’ recruitment and reintegration, as well as service delivery. “We shall continue to adhere to a rights-based approach and ensure the utmost protection of our OFWs’ human and employment rights… (and) to maximize the gains of our OFWs’ employment … through effective, full-cycle reintegration programs,” Cacdac said in releasing his ten-point agenda. He strives to fulfill such agenda in the second full funding year of DMW as an agency, with the 2024 combined funds of both DMW and its attached agency, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), being lower this year than in 2023. The 2023 and 2024 General Appropriations Acts (GAA) show that total 2024 combined funds of DMW and OWWA amount to P12.959 billion, lower compared to the P15.894 billion that both agencies received in 2023. DMW had actually received a higher year-on-year appropriation from the GAA, from P4.174 billion last year to P6.249 billion this year. However, OWWA (the world’s largest welfare fund for migrant workers) received P5.009 billion less (P11.719 billion in 2023, versus P6.710 billion this year). OWWA though manages a pooled fund that comes from US$25 membership fees that departing and repeating OFWs pay prior to departure, on a per-contract basis. These funds supplement what the GAA provides to OWWA, especially in the provision of repatriation and reintegration services to OFWs. DMW was created by virtue of Republic Act 11641 which former President Rodrigo Duterte signed on Dec. 30, 2021. This department merged seven agencies and bureaus involved in OFW work, including the former Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA) of the Department of Foreign Affairs. The year 2022 was a transition year for DMW, with appointed Secretary the late Susan Ople assuming the cudgels without a formal budget. That year also saw the gradual turnover to DMW of the work of POEA, DFA OUMWA, the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO), the International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB), the National Reintegration for OFWs (NRCO), the National Maritime Polytechnic (NMP), and the International Social Service of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Cacdac’s ten-point agenda covers the digitalization of OFW services; improvements in regulating the recruitment of workers; financial education and investment; migrant entrepreneurship; skills upgrading for OFWs with lower income levels; programs for elderly OFWs; bilateral negotiations with host countries receiving OFWs; regional advocacy to promote migrant workers’ rights; operationalizing DMW’s regional offices and migrant workers’ offices abroad; and social dialogue with stakeholders in the OFW sector. GAA data from the Department of Budget and Management show that DMW got higher operational funds this year for its “overseas employment and welfare program,” “labor migration policy and international cooperation program,” and “maritime research and skills competency program” while the agency’s “Overseas employment regulatory program” got lower funds this year. For its part, OWWA’s operational funds for its flagship “social protection and welfare for OFWs program” got diminished by some P5.234 billion. This “social protection” program covers training and scholarship grants (P2.678 million less from last year), welfare services (P8.292 billion less), and membership promotion (P1.964 billion less).

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