WHEN Silvestre Bello III ended his term of office as secretary of labor, he left a huge and serious problem for the next labor officials to solve. It is just Bienvenido Laguesma’s luck that there is now a new department — the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) — that he need not participate directly in solving the problem of some 20,000 Filipino workers who are assured of jobs in Saudi Arabia but remained stranded in the Philippines because of a DOLE order last year suspending deployment until giant Saudi construction firms settle the unpaid wages of some 11,000 Filipino workers.
Newly designated DMW Secretary Toots Ople is the one tackling the problem bequeathed by Bello who flies to another juicy post as head of the Manila Economic Cooperation Office (MECO) in Taiwan.
‘It is a good thing that there is now a specialized department to handle problems of OFWs, not only in Saudi Arabia which is one of the biggest markets for our labor export, but elsewhere in the world.’
Recruitment consultant Manny Geslani believes that labor deployment overseas will not reach the projected 1.8-million mark this year and may even be lower than the 1.4-million notched in 2021 if the government remains unsuccessful in returning to the Saudi labor market.
Since Bello III imposed the “temporary” deployment ban in March last year, 10,000 household service workers and 10,000 construction and skilled workers from the Philippines have not been allowed to fly to their jobs in Saudi Arabia. Bello imposed the deployment ban to demand that the Saudi government pay the wages owed by its giant construction companies to 11,000 OFWs since 2015.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. mentioned this problem in his first State of the Nation Address last July, and even announced that Secretary Ople will soon fly to Saudi Arabia precisely to find a solution.
In less than a month, Ople announced that a group of labor arbiters will be sent to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to mediate issues on labor concerns and safety of OFWs in that country. The inference is that they will take a crack at solving the problem left by Bello.
Secretary Ople said the move is to assist over 10,000 household Filipino workers who are currently stuck in the country since November last year after the Philippine government imposed suspension of deploying Filipino workers to Saudi.
Secretary Ople said, “We initiated the communication with the Saudi officials to draw ‘win-win’ solutions for the OFWs.”
It is a good thing that there is now a specialized department to handle problems of OFWs, not only in Saudi Arabia which is one of the biggest markets for our labor export, but elsewhere in the world. Let us wait for what Secretary Ople can do to crack this challenge.
