REPUBLIC Act 8042, the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, instituted policies governing overseas employment and established a higher standard of protection and promotion of the welfare of migrant workers, their families, and overseas Filipinos in distress. The law came at a time when the number of migrant workers, later to be referred to as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), had reached a total annual deployment of close to a million.
Today, our OFWs continue to be, as they have been for the last decade, regarded as modern-day heroes. With the annual remittances of our OFWs continually increasing, the hard-earned income of these OFWs have shored up not only their families but also the Philippine economy.
On this day, we pay special tribute to the steadily increasing number of OFWs who are deployed in all continents of the world, who are in virtually every field of production and service. We recognize the difficulty they undergo, being physically separated from the land of their birth, from their families, and the toll that such separation takes on the OFWs and their dependents. We are also cognizant of the difficult process of adjustment in the nations they are in.
We also should commend the public officials, those in the relevant agencies in the country – the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, the Department of Labor and Employment, the Department of Foreign Affairs – who have placed the interest and welfare of our OFW as their primordial concern and have given them all possible support.
We observe National Migrant Workers’ Day and pay tribute to these modern-day heroes and to all those who have provided support so that their welfare and interests are protected and promoted.
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