PRESIDENT Duterte has appointed his adviser for overseas Filipino workers and Muslim Concerns Abdullah “Dabs” Mama-o as the secretary of the newly created Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), sources told Business Mirror.
Mama-o’s appointment will be short-lived since President Duterte’s six-year term ends in June 2022 and the new president has the freehand to appoint his/her own set of Cabinet.
Mama-o’s leadership, however, is crucial during the next three months to set the ball rolling for the two-year transition period set forth by Congress to set up the DMW.
The DMW shall bring together under one roof all agencies or sub-agencies mandated to protect and service OFW matters such as the DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, DOLE’s Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, and Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration. It shall only start to function in full swing in 2023, after Congress approves the allocation of its budget next year.
A copy of the appointment paper signed by President Duterte showed that Mama-o’s appointment papers is dated March 4, a month after the Migrant Workers Act that created the DMW took effect.
“Pursuant to the provisions of Section 16, Article VII of the 1987 Constitution and existing laws, you are hereby appointed ad interim Secretary, Department of Migrant Workers.
By virtue hereof, you may qualify and enter upon the performance of the duties of the office, furnishing this Office and the Civil Service Commission with copies of your oath of office,” the appointment said.
Mama-o is a former classmate of Duterte in San Beda College of Law. In 2019, Duterte was seen attending the wedding of Mama-o’s son Mohedin.
Veteran in Mideast negotiations
Aside from being a presidential adviser for OFWs, he was appointed as special envoy to Kuwait in 2018 at the height of the diplomatic row between Manila and Kuwait following the killing of domestic helper Joanna Demafiles, the expulsion of Philippine ambassador Renato Villa and detention of four Philippine Embassy personnel. After months of negotiation, Kuwait and the Philippines signed a memorandum of understanding for the protection of OFWs in Kuwait and Manila lifted the deployment ban of workers there.
In 2016, he headed the Philippine delegation to Saudi Arabia that negotiated for the repatriation of 11,000 stranded OFWs in work camps in Al Khobar, Riyadh and Jeddah.
Mama-o also helped facilitate the release of seven seafarers taken hostage for 18 months in Libya in 2019.
When Iran-US tensions heightened in early 2020 following the assassination of Iran’s top general Qasem Soleimani, Mama-o was appointed to meet Middle East leaders to secure the pass of OFWs in the event the tension escalates to full-blown war.