(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte has signed a law institutionalizing the deployment of social welfare attachés to foreign posts.
Under Republic Act No. 11299 or the Social Welfare Attaché Act, an SWA has the responsibility of managing the cases of Overseas Filipino Workers who are in distress and of addressing their psycho-social needs.
It is the SWA’s task to also put together a social welfare situationer of Filipinos in their areas of assignment, and network with social welfare agencies based overseas.
The law says SWAs shall also establish and maintain a data bank and documentation of OFWs and their families.
“We thank the President for enacting this bill which stands to benefit OFWs, whose contribution to our economy entails personal sacrifice,” Senator Joel Villanueva, who authored the bill in the Senate, said.
So far, there are seven SWAs deployed to Saudi Arabia (Riyadh and Jeddah), United Arab Emirates (Dubai), Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, data from Villanueva’s office showed.
