How does government help the OFW?

Government gives all OFWs a PDOS or a Pre-Departure Seminar, informing them of the unique cultural, legal and social millieu in those alien territories they are venturing into. They are oriented into their rights as migrants under international law and conventions, and as workers under the Labor Code, the Migrant Workers Act and other applicable statutes, as well as per the terms and conditions contained in their employment contracts.

They are amply warned of cultural shocks and possible contrasts in social norms, conflicts in religious and moral values and differences in language and behavior patterns.

They are told that there is an Embassy that will protect them in case of danger to life, liberty and to human dignity, as well as to high risks to health, safety and honor. They are assured that there is a Labor Attache who will run to their location to rescue them in case of extreme risks. And that there is a Welfare Officer who will bring them to the hospitals or clinics in the event of injury or sickness and they are unattended by their employers and agencies.

When OFWs are cheated by their recruiters or maltreated by their masters, they can run to POLO (Philippine Overseas Labor Office) where they will be given legal assistance and moral support. The Labor attache can give them legal and emotional counselling, can assist them to file cases if there is a need to seek redress for grievances before the tribunals in the host country. If they run away for fear of extreme danger to life and safety or for harassments, they will be given shelter for free, with free food and beddings, bath and other support, all without any obligation to pay.

Of course, there are many lapses, many inadequacies. The people on the ground are overworked and often harrashed by disgruntled migrants and NGOs that do not uinderstand how we, in the service do work even on Sundays and holidays, visiting patients in far flung hospitals and homes, and distressed OFWs in jails and detention centers.

When I was Labor Attache in Kuwait, from 2008 to March 2010, I was serving 275,000 OFWs, with no assistant, and at time with no Welfare Officer. I was the only diplomat perhaps in the whole world who had to take a taxi to rescue a rape victim in the desert in the middle of the night. But I did it all, without complaint because I was the representation of Government in the eyes of the dying OFW and in the minds of their grieving families way back in Sultan Kudarat. And if I failed, Government would have also failed.

I had to nurse my own demoralization and difficulties in the solitude of that far flung country, and I cursed myself for leaving the comforts of corporate life in order to become the servant of the domestic servants, 65,000 of them in Kuwait alone. Yes, the recruiters earn their millions and build their mansions, out of the tears, sweat and blood of the poor OFW, while the miserable Labor Attaches and Welfare Officers are left alone to paddle their own canoes in an ocean of pain and suffering.

The politicians deliver their privilege speeches in the halls of Congress, and get their glory; the bigwigs go on junkets around the world, and get their pleasures, while the OFWs are struggling and government, represented by forgotten frontliners, are often ignored, misunderstood and harrashed by endless need for submitting a litany of reports. We dont have enough time even to be sorry for ourselves.

That is how government takes care of its OFWs. And we are willing to prove it anywhere and anytime.