Long-time OFW (overseas Filipino worker) rights advocate Susan Ople urged authorities to intensify the hunt for illegal recruiters.
Ople, the daughter of the late senator and labor secretary Blas Ople, is the head of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, “a non-profit organization that handles labor and migration concerns and develops programs to empower the OFW and his or her family.”
“Kailangan po magkaisa tayo at magtulungan para matakot naman sila, at sila naman ay mahiya at managot sa kanilang ginagawa,” Ople said in a press briefing yesterday, Aug 26.
(We need to work together to scare these illegal recruiters, so they’ll have some shame and they’ll be held accountable for what they’ve done.)
The Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) support Ople’s plea.
According to a report by the Philippine News Agency, the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) was only able to successfully get 31 conviction out of 700 cases in the last five years.
31 out of 700? Surely our law enforcement can do better than that, especially since we call our OFWs our “modern day heroes.”
