(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte has signed Republic Act 11641 creating a Department of Migrant Workers.
Under the law, the department will oversee all policies protecting the welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers, effectively assuming the functions in that regard of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.
The department, which shall be headed by a secretary and aided by four undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, will also formulate and promote policies aimed at the reintegration of OFWs and other overseas Filipinos.
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, meanwhile, will become an attached agency of the department.
President Duterte has long been pushing for the creation of a department dedicated solely to protecting overseas Filipino workers.
He has called overseas Filipino workers the country’s modern-day heroes in many of his speeches, noting how much they have to sacrifice when leaving their families behind to earn a living.