Protecting overseas workers1. The departure of overseas Filipinos comes with it
government’s task of providing protection to overseas workers. Meanwhile, cases on illegal
recruitment and settlement of recruitment cases are small compared to the total number of
deployed overseas workers.
But the concern here is the cases just keep on coming, and at year’s end government
regulators are dealing with a rising number of pending cases for both illegal recruitment and
adjudication. In illegal recruitment cases the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
(POEA) handled under the Arroyo government, what is of concern is the decreasing rate of the
disposition of cases [see Graphic Set 1].
Meanwhile, by end of 2009, the number of adjudication cases pending at POEA has
reached a nine-year peak [see Graphic Set 2]. These facts come as a surprise since POEA has
toughened up its regulations on deploying overseas workers.