Expediting OFW deployment process

Newly appointed Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac definitely did his predecessor well when he declared that he would make it the agency’s priority to streamline and digitize all processes meant to protect overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

He would “further [build on Susan Ople’s] legacy,” Cacdac said, recalling how the late DMW chief had vowed to cut down the processing time of OFW documents to ensure the swift, efficient, and convenient delivery of services to the country’s “modern day heroes.”

In a briefing in July 2022, Ople noted that it took “a minimum of three months” for an OFW to get accreditation.

“By doing away with all those redundant procedures and unnecessary requirements, even the number of signatures, we are confident that we can cut that timeline from a minimum of three months to perhaps less than a month or three weeks,” Ople said, adding that the project would be done in partnership with the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

Cumbersome processes

Bureaucratic red tape and cumbersome processes also generated complaints from vacationing OFWs who often found themselves squandering precious family time applying for and obtaining their Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC), Ople said. Without the exit clearance, OFWs may be prevented from leaving. In July last year, the agency launched the DMW Mobile App that contains the digital alternative to the OEC, and which can be downloaded through Google Play or Apple App Store.

Such “paperless” transactions, Ople said, would allow OFWs to store the needed documents on their mobile phones, and allow for a seamless vetting process with immigration agencies across the world.

Digitizing procedures and transactions in OFW deployment is a welcome move to protect and safeguard the rights of Filipinos working abroad. While labor export may not be the most ideal policy to solve the country’s perennial unemployment problem—and must be considered only as a panacea or stop-gap measure—it has proven to be hugely popular among those looking to earn much more than local wages in foreign shores.

Risky shortcuts

The increase in the number of Filipinos leaving for overseas work supports this. According to the Survey on Overseas Filipinos by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), OFWs who worked abroad from April to September 2022 was estimated at 1.96 million, an increase of 7.6 percent from 1.83 million OFWs in the same period in 2021. Their total remittances reached P197 billion in 2022, which works out to P111,000 in average remittances from every OFW from April to September 2022. This is higher than the P91,000 average remittance sent in the same period in 2021.

Which explains why, despite reports of abuses, withheld wages, contract-switching, and fraud, applicants continue to swarm shady recruitment agencies and unscrupulous fixers to facilitate the often expensive, labyrinthine, and time-consuming process of applying for jobs abroad. While majority or 1.94 million OFWs have existing work contracts, the PSA lists some 26,000 OFWs who are employed full-time abroad armed only with a tourist, visitor, student, medical, and other types of nonimmigrant visas. This means they had chosen swift deployment over the protective labor measures they would have gotten had they gone through the requisite DMW process.

Such risky shortcuts are particularly dire for women who comprise majority or 57.8 percent (1.13 million) of OFWs in 2022, slightly less than the PSA figure for 2021 which is 60.2 percent.

Social costs of motherless homes

Aside from the social costs of motherless homes, this trend creates fears of life-threatening abuses on female OFWs who are often employed as domestic workers in countries whose cultures regard women as part of the household—with very few or no rights at all. PSA data indicate that in 2022, about 23 percent of OFWs worked in Saudi Arabia, followed by the United Arab Emirates at 13.7 percent. A large number of OFWs also worked in Kuwait (7.7 percent of 1.96 million), and in Qatar (5.8 percent).

Given such precarious circumstances and predictable risks that OFWs desperate for a job have been forced to face, it is thus imperative for the DMW to craft more convenient and expedited procedures for deployment that could entice applicants to go through the government-mandated process meant to protect them abroad. Easing our OFWs into the digital age will also help them avoid being victimized by cybercriminals who often target them and their families for illegal recruitment, human trafficking, investment scams, and consumer fraud.

It would certainly lend weight to Cacdac’s expressed goal of creating “a haven and sanctuary where every OFW feels valued, respected, and empowered,” as “co-architects of national development.”