The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Monday it is now eyeing a new system for its controversial identification cards (ID) for overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
In a phone interview, Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III told Business Mirror he already directed Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Hans Cacdac to head the committee that will study the proposal.
“I told admin Cacdac he should hopefully come up with a recommendation before the SONA (State of the Nation Address),” Bello said.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte will be delivering his latest SONA by next week.
Bello issued the statement days after ACT-OFW Rep. Aniceto John Bertiz III accused DOLE of using the wrongfully using the system he donated for the enforcement of iDOLE by collecting fees for the ID.
Bertiz said he got reports DOLE has been charging P720 to the beneficiaries of the iDOLE cards.
DOLE belied the allegation stating the 50 iDOLE cards that distributed since last April were given for free.
Unique ID
Bello said they intend to push through with the implementation of iDOLE cards even with the proposed bill in Congress for a National ID system.
He explained the iDOLE will still have a separate function with the National ID since it will cater more on the needs of OFWs.
The iDOLE cards will allowed OFWs to access their records in multiple agencies and also “serve as their overseas employment certificates (OEC).”
An OEC is a documentary requirement of POEA for Filipinos before they could allowed to work abroad.
iDOLE, Bello pointed out, will make it more convenient for OFWs to obtain their OECs since they will no longer have to have to line up or pay for it.
The Commission on Election (Comelec) announced earlier this year it already stopped issuing voter’s ID since its functions will overlap with that of the National ID.
New anomaly
Meanwhile, Bello said he is ready to face the investigation over the allegation that he refused to provide aid to an OFW.
“I am willing to do so in the proper forum. I know I did not commit any mistake,” Bello said.
In a radio interview yesterday, Kilusang Pagbabago-National Movement for Change Secretary general Alie Dizon said they have evidence that Bello refused to give assistance to an OFW in retrieving her nine–month old baby in Al Khobar, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia this year.
Dizon said Bello banned the said OFW from his office and asked the workers’ recruitment agency, who helped in her repatriation to pay P1.5 million.
Bello denied the allegations admitting he was indeed approached by the OFW, but not on the issue of bringing home her baby but to follow up on the pending case of her recruiter.
He said he refused to divulge the information to the OFW since the the recruitment agency has a pending illegal recruitment case in the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) for allegedly deploying minors abroad.
“Had we known she needed help in bringing home her baby we would have helped her. But she asked about the case of her recruiter instead,” Bello said.