OFW News

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Thursday said he requested permission from President Rodrigo Duterte to consider the possibility of a ban on deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) due to “still” unpaid wages worth PHP4.6 billion. “I sent a memorandum to the President requesting his permission to consider a deployment ban to the

A Filipina domestic worker recounted in court today, Oct 11, how a secondary school teacher who hired her last year, allegedly assaulted her on several occasions, forbade her to take a rest day and once forced her to eat congee laced with dishwashing detergent. Eden Pales, 37, gave evidence on the first day of her employer’s trial in West Kowloon

The Department of Foreign Affairs, in coordination with the Philippine Embassies in Cambodia and Myanmar, organized a sweeper relief flight on October 5 via Myanmar National Airlines flight number UB 9905 to repatriate distressed Filipinos from Cambodia and Myanmar. In a news release on Thursday, the DFA said the flight carried 73 distressed overseas Filipinos — including one infant, two

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on Wednesday said there are now “less than 400” slots left for health care workers who want to work overseas. The Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19 earlier pegged the deployment cap on heath care workers to 6,500 to ensure that the country would not run out of its health workers especially during the pandemic.

Filipinos based in the Philippines who are rendering online services for overseas employers and are leaving to assume their jobs abroad for the first time are not qualified for the issuance of overseas employment certificate (OEC) for balik-manggagawa or returning workers. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) issued the clarification after a number of these workers attempted to secure an

Senator Joel Villanueva said senators have wrapped up their interpellation of a bill creating the Department of Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos (DMWOF). Villanueva, chairman of the Senate labor committee, said the termination of the period of interpellation and debates “means we’re entering the last quarter of the game.” When Congress resumes sessions next month, he said the bill will

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is set to open up more appointment slots in the next few days, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Brigido Dulay said Saturday. “We just opened slots for October 2021. We will continue to open more slots in the next few days,” he said in a tweet. “Slots in our consular offices and TOPS (temporary offsite passport

The Philippines has imposed a travel restriction on Bermuda, the only country on its “red list” effective October 1 to October 15, 2021, Malacañang said Thursday. “Bermuda is the only country in the Red List, while there are 49 countries in the Green List,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement. According to previous guidelines issued by the Inter-Agency

US President Joe Biden cited the contributions of Filipino-Americans through the centuries but noted the selfless service and sacrifices by the nurses amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. “Filipino Americans have continued to serve and sacrifice in one of the darkest years in our history, selflessly working on the widespread frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Biden in a statement

The Philippine government is considering suspending the deployment of overseas Filipino workers to Saudi Arabia to press for the repatriation of two OFWs hired by a former general as domestic helpers. Rolly Francia, director of the Department of Labor and Employment Information and Public Service, said the Philippine Overseas Labor Office recommended to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello to suspend the