Overseas Filipino workers would be given more state assistance and protection after the amended version of the Migrant Worker and Overseas Filipino Act of 1995 lapsed into law.

Republic Act No. 10022, or an Act Amending Republic Act No. 8042 otherwise known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, sought to improve the standard of protection and promotion of OFW welfare.

The measure, a consolidated version of Senate Bill 3286 and House Bill 5649, lapsed into law last March 8 after the President did not act on it amid protests from several migrants' groups on some alleged anti-worker amendments.

The law provided several measures to resolve problems in the recruitment and deployment of Filipino workers abroad, improve rescue and assistance mechanisms, and set heavier penalties for violators.

One of the salient provisions of the law is making reprocessing of job orders for overseas Filipino workers an illegal act.

The law expanded the scope of illegal recruitment, which now includes reprocessing workers through a job order that pertains to non-existent work, unlike the actual overseas employment or work with a different employer whether registered or not with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

The amended law provides a penalty of imprisonment of from 12 to 20 years and a fine of at least P1 million to P2 million for violators.

Under the law, the government is mandated to monitor international conventions and ratify those that ensure protection of Filipino workers abroad as well as forge bilateral pacts with host countries.

Members of the governing board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) are also now made accountable in the deployment of migrant workers based on RA 10022.

State officials who facilitate the deployment of OFWs to countries that do not guarantee or follow international labor standards face dismissal from public service or disqualification from government appointments for five years.

Some migrant workers' groups have opposed the amendments to the RA 8042, particularly the compulsory worker’s insurance coverage. They claim the provision would only benefit less than half of the deployed Filipino workers overseas since it covers only those who went through a recruitment agency.

The original law on migrant workers protection, Republic Act 8042, was signed in 1995 following public outrage over the execution of a Filipina worker in Singapore.