To better protect from exploitation and promote the welfare of overseas Filipino workers, Davao City Representative Paolo Duterte with Benguet Representative Eric Yap have filed a measure seeking to strengthen the definition of illegal recruitment in the Labor Code by providing a more stringent requirement to what constitutes illegal recruitment by a syndicate.
House Bill 8360 states that instead of three conspirators, it currently proposes that at least two conspirators would now correspond to an illegal recruitment syndicate, which is tantamount to economic sabotage, and eventually, violators would be meted stricter and stiffer penalties.
“Despite recent legislations increasing the penalty for the crime of illegal recruitment, the Department of Migrant Workers still regarded it as among the most pertinent issue in labor migration as it highlights that ‘illegal recruiter could victimize an average of 500 aspiring OFWs just in one day’,” Duterte said.
Duterte stressed that in defining labor as the primary social economic force, the 1987 Constitution affirms the protection of the rights and promotion of welfare of workers. The said mandate, he pointed out, encompasses not only workers in the country, but also the Filipinos working abroad.
Yap, on the other hand, noted that according to the International Labor Organization, at least 10 million Filipinos live abroad and more than one million leave the country each year to work in foreign countries.
“Hence, while labor migration serves as a national thrust for economic growth, especially in the Philippines due to consistent increase in OFW remittances, Filipino migrants remain vulnerable to exploitation and abuse including contract violations, sexual harassment, violence and discrimination, and illegal recruitment,” Yap said.
The proposed measure aims to strengthen Article 38 of Presidential Decree 442, otherwise known as the Labor Code of the Philippines as amended.
The measure also intends to amend Section 6 of Republic Act 8042, otherwise known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, as amended by R.A.10022, to make it more stringent for the benefit of the OFWs, the government considers as the country’s modern heroes.