At least 25 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) are now on death row abroad and need legal support, according to the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW).
They were among the 1,106 OFWs with pending cases abroad, who are receiving legal aid from DMW through its P2.2-billion Agarang Kalinga sa mga OFW (overseas Filipino workers) na Nangangailangan (AKSYON) Fund this year.
DMW Hans J. Cacdac explained initially they have 50 to 60 OFWs, who were sentenced to death, but it was greatly reduced after Malaysia implemented a new policy, which made it more flexible in terms of commuting the death penalty.
The said cases are now down to 25 after the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) sought the commutation of OFWs on death sentence in Malaysia.
Cacdac said they are now working with the DFA and the Office of the President to save the remaining 25 OFWs, who are facing the death sentence, by seeking for the postponement of their executions and then appealing for their sentence to be commuted or for their acquittal.
‘The President is also very concerned about death row cases and we have been working quietly to hold the executions at bay and you are right, you have hit the nail on the head, [we are pushing for] those cases to be commuted.If not completely removed,’ he said in Filipino.
DMW is currently seeking for a higher AKSYON Fund, which is set to be reduced to just P1.2 billion next year due to low utilization rate, so it can hire more legal counsel to assist OFWs, who are facing charges abroad.
The agency currently has 23 legal retainers and 10 in-house lawyers to handle the said cases. It also has some partnerships with 22 law firms, which it taps for cases which reach the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court of the host countries.
The said lawyers were deployed in countries with a large concentration of OFWs with cases namely the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Israel.
Cacdac explained that hiring legal counsel abroad is very costly. He noted they disbursed P332,257,000 out of the AKSYON Fund to pay its legal personnel abroad.
He asked the Senate to increase their AKSYON Fund next year from P2.4 billion to increase the number of their in-house lawyers and partner law firms next year.
Senators Sherwin T. Gatchalian and Rodante D. Marcoleta backed the said proposal of raising the AKSYON Fund since OFWs with pending cases abroad, who have regular legal aid from DMW, are able to win their legal appeals.
At least seven to eight more Migrant Workers Office (MWO) are expected to be operational next year to make government services accessible to more overseas Filipino workers (OFW) abroad, according to the DMW.
This will be on top of the 42 existing MWOs worldwide including its most recently opened in Bangkok, which will accommodate 40,000 OFWs in Thailand.
Cacdac said another three MWOs will be established before the end of the year in Cambodia, Guam and Vietnam.
‘I will be conservative, I will say 7 to 8 [MWO] will be opened [in 2026]. But we are aiming for 13 next year Mr. Chair,’ he told Senate Committee on Migrant Workers chairperson Senator Rafael ‘Raffy’ T. Tulfo during a budget hearing last Monday.
Cacdac said the plan will help address their significant backlog in terms of MWO.
Under the Republic Act No. 11641 or the ‘Department of Migrant Workers Act,’ DMW must establish MWOs in areas where there are Philippine Foreign Service Posts and have a large concentration of OFWs.
Among the services provided by the MWOs are promoting and protecting the welfare and interests of OFWs; verifying employment contracts and other employment-related documents; and monitoring the status of OFWs in a specific country or territory.
‘The DFA has presence to at least 92 [nationwide locations] as far as I know, and are still far off [from what is required in the law] at 42,’ Cacdac said.
DMW issued the pronouncement when asked by Tulfo if its 1,429 filled positions is already sufficient to accommodate the estimated 10 million OFWs abroad.
Cacdac explained that their current number of personnel is only 75 percent of their total manpower.
As part of its DMW’s proposed P10.2-billion 2026 budget, he said they are eyeing to hire six additional personnel per post.
‘Right now, we will always have to say that we are short on people and it would be good to add more, especially in regular positions,’ he said in Filipino