De Lima bats for human rights education for OFWs

Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has filed a measure seeking to strengthen human rights education and the system of legal assistance for migrant workers to ensure that abuses against them are prevented.

De Lima filed Senate Bill (SB) No. 1785 amending Section 23 of Republic Act (RA) No. 8042, highlighting the role of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in human rights education of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and in providing legal assistance to them.

“This bill seeks to strengthen CHR’s Constitutional mandate by legislating the mechanism that will ensure the continuing education and information dissemination among OFWs on human rights from the point of pre-departure to actual deployment, and its periodic monitoring,” she said.

“It also seeks to legislate the active involvement and coordination of the CHR in the government’s provision of legal assistance to the OFWs,” she added.

In filing the proposed measure, the former CHR Chairperson highlighted the abuses some OFWs were subjected to in the hands of their foreign employers as she cited particular cases involving their maltreatments.

Among these were the cases of Joanna Demafelis whose body was found in a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait in February 2018, and Mary Jane Veloso, a human trafficking victim convicted for carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin at the Yogyakarta Airport in 2010.

Noting how the abuse does not only happen to OFWs of legal age,

De Lima further cited the case of Sarah Balabagan, a then-14-year-old who faked her age so she can work abroad. Balabagan was found guilty of murder in 1995 for stabbing her employer, whom she alleged of attempting to rape her, to death 34 times.

While RA No. 8042, also known as the “Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995,” has been enforced for decades, De Lima said questions still linger in terms of the effectiveness of the measure in educating OFWs on human rights.

Under the proposed measure, the CHR is mandated to develop and monitor a human rights education program for OFWs, in partnership with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Labor and Employment and other concerned government agencies.

De Lima also noted that the program will supplement the pre-departure and the post-arrival orientation seminars by integrating human rights education in the agencies’ respective programs.

“The CHR, also as Gender Ombud, is duty-bound to enhance comprehensive efforts to streamline human rights education programs for current and aspiring OFWs, in line with its function to implement preventive measures for Filipinos residing abroad who need protection,” she said.

De Lima maintained that OFWs will remain vulnerable in the hands of illegal recruiters, abusive employers, and human traffickers if they are unaware of the full extent of their rights, and they are not provided with adequate legal assistance when needed. (30)