PROTECTION of Filipino migrant workers is already provided by law and remains a matter of implementation, an opposition senator said.

“I read the Overseas Workers Act. It is very detailed. The problem is it is not being implemented. Example is the information-sharing scheme which was not formed. In the case of Ms. [Joanna D.] Demafelis, for instance, almost a year had passed since she was reported missing but no action was taken,” Senator Franklin M. Drilon said in an interview with DZBB on Sunday, Feb. 25.

Mr. Drilon, a former Labor secretary, cited a provision in Republic Act. 8042, the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, “that there should be a sharing of information.”

“Second, what does the government do in order to have a labor agreement especially with countries where we send women as domestic workers?” he added.

The lawmaker suggested that “we should not allow that there would be a labor agreement between the Philippines and Kuwait and [other] countries in the Middle East,” noting that “the domestic laws of such countries do not cover, most of the time, the protection of our workers.”

Asked whether there is a need for a memorandum of agreement (MoA) extending the protection for OFWs, Mr. Drilon said: “It is already in the law, but it is not followed.”

Mr. Drilon also said it is unnecessary for the government to come up with remedial legislation on the blacklisting of countries seen to have failed protecting OFWs from abuses.

“Hindi kailangan ang batas dahil nasa batas iyan, dahil yung POEA governing board ay may kapangyarihan na ipagbawal ang deployment ng ating mga manggagawa sa ibayong dagat,” Mr. Drilon said. (No need for a law because it is already there. The POEA [Philippine Overseas Employment Administration] governing board has the authority to stop the deployment of our workers overseas.)

He added: “Nasa batas iyan pero hindi ko alam (k)ung nag-meeting itong POEA. Parang hindi.” (It’s in the law, but I don’t know if the POEA meets on this. Apparently not.”

Sought for comment, Migrante International spokesperson Arman N. Hernandez said that a “comprehensive protection” for OFWs is needed,” noting that the deployment ban on OFWs to Kuwait is “not enough help.”

“In protecting the migrant workers, there must (be) an onsite protection; meaning, the government should be active in monitoring the situation of OFWs in the countries where they are deployed. It should not (rely on the) recruiters. The government should be hands-on in protecting them. Along with that is the quick response during emergencies….” he said.

For its part, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) announced last Friday, Feb. 23, its establishment of the OFW Command Center.

“To further enhance the protection and welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the Department of Labor and Employment established the OFW Command Center (through Administrative Order No. 73 issued by Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III) to serve as the central referral and action hub for all OFW requests for immediate action and assistance,” DoLE said in a media statement.

“The operation of the Command Center will help ensure that all the concerns of our OFWs are attended to, especially if the incident(s) involving them needed immediate action and assistance,” Mr. Bello said in the statement. — Arjay L. Balinbin

A DELEGATION of senators will visit Boracay Island this week as part of an inquiry in aid of legislation, the Department of Tourism (DoT) announced last week. In a statement, DoT Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo said part of the multi-agency program “Oplan Save Boracay (#saveboracay)” is pushing for the passage a tourism heritage law that will protect the country’s nature-destinations. “If enacted and implemented, a tourism heritage law will be more effective in ensuring the preservation and protection not only of Boracay Island and its seawaters but all of the country’s natural tourist destinations,” said Ms. Teo. In the meantime, the tourism head said several government agencies are currently working on a joint administrative order to immediately address Boracay’s longstanding sewage, waste management, and other environment-related problems. The agencies include the DoT, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of the Interior and Local Governments (DILG), Department of Justice (DoJ), and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). At the same time, Ms. Teo assured tourists that Boracay, the country’s most popular island destination for both local and foreign visitors, “remains among the world’s most beautiful islands.”

PHILTRAM TRANSPORTATION Consortium, Inc., is set to submit its unsolicited proposal on the Cebu monorail project to the Department of Transportation next month, according to Cerwin Eviota, the firm’s public relations officer. “The FS (feasibility study) should have been done now. But we needed to expand the coverage to the heart of Consolacion following an adjustment in the alignment (of the project). This will be completed next month. By then we will submit Philtram’s unsolicited proposal to DoTr,” Mr. Eviota told The Freeman. Initially, the 16.5-kilometer monorail is being eyed to start at Citta Di Mare at the South Road Properties, then to SM Seaside City, to Mambaling Access Road, to Natalio Bacalso Avenue, to Katipunan area, to P. del Rosario Street, to Zapatera, to Robinsons Galleria, to SM City Cebu, to Mandaue City, to Parkmall, to San Miguel area, to Maguikay, to Pacific Mall. — The Freeman

PHILIPPINE POLICE said Sunday they were hunting for 12 inmates who escaped from a jail on a southern island that is the stronghold of Islamist militants.

The detainees were among 29 inmates who bolted from a prison inside a police station in Jolo on Saturday where they were being held mostly on drug charges. The remaining 17 were recaptured the same day, police said.

Jolo, the capital town of the island province of Sulu, is a base for the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group and authorities said they were investigating whether or not the inmates who escaped had links with the militants.

“A guard went on break, went to the toilet and when he left, the inmates found a way to escape. They picked the lock of the jail cell and fled,” regional police spokesman Senior Inspector Jemar delos Santos told AFP.

“We are heightening security around the perimeter of the island municipality and securing ports so that they would not be able to leave Jolo.”

The jail had a capacity of about 50 inmates and was located near a port, Mr. Delos Santos added.

Police replaced all the prison guards as they probed the jailbreak.

The Philippines frequently has mass escapes from prisons, which are usually overcrowded, poorly maintained and inadequately guarded.

In the country’s biggest jailbreak, more than 150 inmates escaped a prison in the southern Philippines in January last year after about a hundred gunmen stormed the facility.

In July 2017, three inmates were killed and another was wounded as 14 prisoners escaped from a jail in Jolo.

Islamist militants in the mainly Catholic nation, including Abu Sayyaf members, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group as they went on a rampage in the southern city of Marawi last year.

The five-month siege flattened Marawi, claimed more than 1,100 lives and sparked fears IS was seeking to establish a regional base. — AFP

THE WIDOW of two slain militant leaders has been arrested for allegedly supporting extremist groups and possessing firearms and explosives, Philippine police said Sunday.

Juromee Dongon was married to a senior leader of the notorious Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group, Khadaffy Janjalani. After his death in 2006 she married Malaysian bombmaker Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, who was killed in 2015 in the Philippines, police said.

Authorities arrested Ms. Dongon along with her relatives in her home in Lanao del Norte province in the restive southern region of Mindanao where they found firearms, ammunition and bomb-making components, a police statement said.

“She assists, associates, networks and supports terrorist groups,” regional police spokesman Superintendent Lemuel Gonda told AFP.

“Juromee is linked with Abu Sayyaf during the time of Janjalani and then later Jemaah Islamiyah,” he added, referring to a Southeast Asian militant group.

Mr. Marwan was a leading member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and a suspect in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people as well as in two deadly Philippine attacks.

He died in a raid in the southern Philippines that also left 44 police commandos dead. The US had offered a $5-million bounty for him.

In two operations on Sunday, police arrested Ms. Dongon as well as her two sisters and father, Mr. Gonda said, adding the family had “connections with terrorists.”

The Dongons faced charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

Abu Sayyaf is an Islamist militant group which was set up in the 1990s with seed money from the Al-Qaeda network, and has been blamed for the worst terror attacks in the Philippines’ history, including bombings.

The Abu Sayyaf had harbored JI militants in their bases in remote southern islands, including key suspects in the Bali bombings.

Security analysts have said widows of militant leaders played important roles in extremist groups as they enhanced the status of their second husbands. — AFP

TRANSPORTATION officials and private stakeholders inspect the proposed stations of the EDSA bus project yesterday, Feb. 25. The Department of Transportation plans to deploy modern e-bus units along EDSA, equipped with large side doors for persons with disabilities, and to ensure safer and faster loading and unloading of passengers, has installed CCTV cameras, and will use the automatic fare collection system.

THE OLD CITY HALL of Tagum will soon become the site of a P190-million cultural and historical center, which will house a museum, a modern city library, a pasalubong (souvenir) center, the Knights of Rizal headquarters, and a 1,000-seater theater. The city government, in a statement, said the cultural center is part of several projects being funded through a loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines. The other projects include a P4-million child minding center, P30.5-million Tagum City Police Training Complex, P20-million City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office building, P30-million Overland Transport and Integrated Terminal with commercial building; and P8-million Meditation House.

FORMER President Fidel V. Ramos, together with other key figures in the 1986 EDSA Revolution, and government and security officials, prepare to raise the Philippine flag during yesterday’s 32^nd anniversary celebration of the peaceful People Power uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship.