(Eagle News)–Senator Nancy Binay is pushing for the creation of centers that will cater to the needs of families left behind by Overseas Filipino Workers.
In seeking the establishment of “OFW family centers” through Senate Bill No. 975, Binay noted what she said was the role of the State in strengthening the family, as contained in Article XV Section 1 of the Constitution.
She noted the Filipino diaspora has resulted in social problems within the family due to “long separations between spouses and children.”
These social problems, she said, include marital infidelity resulting in broken marriages, drug addiction, crime, suicide or psychological breakdowns.
Under Binay’s bill, the OFW family centers, which shall be the regional offices of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration or any of the regional offices of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Department of Social Welfare and Development and shall be “strategically located in every municipality where there is a large population of families who have relatives working abroad,” shall provide welfare assistance and counseling services to the families of OFWs ,serve as coordinating office to non-government organizations and associations that cater to the plight of OFWs and serve as a link of left-behind households to various services and/or agencies of the government on overseas employment.
The bill also directs OWWA to facilitate the establishment of organizations or support groups of families left behind by migrant workers, and to report to Congress the number of cases brought to the various centers and the intervention provided three years after the implementation of the law.
“A yearly statistical report shall be submitted to the Department of Labor and Employment and other concerned agencies,” the bill said.
According to Binay, based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, an estimated 2.3 million OFWs worked abroad during the period of April to September of last year.
