QuestionsQuestions (Republic Act No. 11641)
RA 11641 is entitled the “Department of Migrant Workers Act.” It was approved on December 30, 2021, and it takes effect fifteen (15) days after publication in the Official Gazette or in at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation.
The State must protect the rights and promote the welfare of OFWs by: (a) ensuring private recruitment meets professional, legal, and ethical standards; (b) ensuring best possible work conditions upholding OFW dignity; (c) providing timely and responsive services regardless of legal status; (d) ensuring OFW participation in policy formulation affecting their welfare; and (e) providing mechanisms for skills development and reintegration.
An OFW is a Filipino who is to be engaged, is engaged, or has been engaged in remunerated activity in a country where the person is not an immigrant/citizen/permanent resident or awaiting naturalization, recognition, or admission, whether land-based or sea-based regardless of status. It excludes Filipinos under a government-recognized exchange visitor program for cultural/educational purposes.
“In distress” refers to an OFW (regardless of immigration status) who has medical/psychosocial/legal problems, experiencing abuse/exploitation, whose human rights are violated, or who is in a country in actual/potential war, civil unrest, pandemic, or analogous circumstances requiring medical treatment, counseling, legal representation, rescue, repatriation, or analogous interventions, including repatriation of remains.
Section 4 consolidates and merges the POEA (and enumerated entities in Section 19) into the Department. Section 19 specifically lists: (a) POEA; (b) DFA’s OUMWA; (c) all POLO under DOLE; (d) ILAB under DOLE; (e) NRCO under OWWA; (f) NMP under DOLE; and (g) OSWA under DSWD. Their powers/functions are subsumed to the Department.
The Department is the primary agency under the Executive Branch tasked to protect OFW rights and promote welfare, regardless of status or means of entry. It formulates, plans, coordinates, promotes, administers, and implements policies and systems for regulating/managing/monitoring overseas employment and reintegration of OFWs, considering NEDA programs.
The Secretary (and authorized deputy) has power to: (1) issue subpoenas or subpoenas duces tecum in investigations for illegal recruitment/trafficking; (2) hold or cite persons in contempt as provided in IRR; (3) administer oaths; and (4) access all public records and relevant records of private parties, in accordance with law.
The Department must regulate recruitment/employment/deployment of OFWs, including regulating private recruitment and manning agencies (Section 6[b], [j], [k]). It must foster professionalization, promote ethical recruitment practices, and ensure compliance with legal and ethical standards, training, and capacity-building of agencies.
Section 6(l) requires the Department to establish a 24/7 Emergency Response and Action Center Unit and a media and social media monitoring center to respond to emergency needs of OFWs and their families.
The AKSYON Fund provides legal and other forms of assistance to OFWs, separate from DFA-managed funds. DFA retains ATN and Legal Assistance Funds for other Filipinos abroad and consular services. The AKSYON Fund supports assistance, including repatriation-related and analogous interventions for OFWs.
The MWO is the operating arm overseas of the Department attached to Philippine Foreign Service Posts. It absorbs POLO and OSWA functions and relevant ATN units, and performs functions including welfare protection, contract verification, monitoring and reporting, coordination with foreign governments, supervision of MWRC, assistance in emergencies, psychosocial services, case management, repatriation facilitation, and gender focal point functions.
MWRC absorbs the functions of the Migrant Workers and Other Filipinos Resource Center under RA 8042 (as amended). It is under the Department and, in addition to existing functions, must provide temporary shelters to distressed OFWs.
It is a comprehensive reintegration program for both documented and undocumented OFWs embedded in all stages of migration: pre-deployment, on-site during employment, and upon return (voluntary or involuntary). It covers economic, social, psychosocial, gender-responsive, cultural support, skills certification/recognition, social protection access, financial services, and reintegration support for VAW and trafficking survivors.
The Department must establish a computer-based MIS within six (6) months from IRR approval/adoption, with shared access parameters. It must comply with RA 10173 (Data Privacy Act) and uses disaggregated data (sex, age, migratory status, destination country, skills/experience/professional capabilities) to support operations and policy formulation. It should integrate office databases into the Department’s main system and serve as a registry of OFW skills.
The transfer of functions, assets, funds, equipment, properties, transactions, and personnel and the formulation of the Department’s internal structure and budget must be completed within two (2) years from effectivity. Holdover capacities are allowed until new appointments and staffing patterns are issued.
Affected employees enjoy security of tenure and are absorbed in accordance with staffing patterns and selection under RA 6656. Those separated within six (6) months due to reorganization get separations benefits under the Government Reorganization Law plus additional separation incentives computed as percentages of actual monthly basic salary per year of service depending on length of service. There is a five-year reemployment ban in Executive Branch agencies (with exceptions for teaching/medical staff), and reemployment within the prohibited period requires refund/return of incentives on a pro-rated basis.
The Oversight Committee monitors and oversees implementation of RA 11641. It has six (6) Senate and six (6) House members, co-chaired by the House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs chair and the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development chair. The Department must submit an annual report within 30 days from end of each calendar year, including master list/inventory of pending cases, working conditions, rights violations/problems, foreign service initiatives, host-country law/policy changes, and status of bilateral labor negotiations.