Zamboanga City - - Congresswoman Beng Climaco of District I Tuesday co-authored a resolution in the House of Representatives directing the Overseas Workers Affairs to conduct an investigation into the new hiring policy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with the purpose of proposing legislative measures to prevent abuses on the rights and privileges of overseas Filipino workers and its adverse impact on their deployment to the KSA.

Cong. Climaco co-authored Resolution 751 with Hon. Rex Gatchalian of Valenzuela City during a forum on OFWs and deportees at the House of Congress the other day.
The KSA, through the Saudi National Recruitment Committee (SANARCOM), a group of private recruitment agencies in Saudi Arabia is set to implement new policies for regulation on the deployment of Filipino overseas workers to its country, effective September 1st.

Climaco said, under the proposed unified scheme, SANARCOM is made a middleman, “creating a brokering system of passing through a Saudi recruitment agency for contracts and visas, thereby placing local overseas recruitment industry under the control of the Saudi National Recruitment Committee instead of dealing directly with employers as previously practiced”.
According to Climaco, the new scheme will impose an “additional burden in the already tortuous recruitment process ands recruitment costs for migrant workers”.
She stressed the need for a thorough review of all the other provisions included in the new hiring policy vis-à-vis the existing guidelines on the deployment of migrant workers as well as the policies that promote and protect their rights.
The conduct of the investigation, she said, will apprise the House of Congress on the whole context of the unified scheme to formulate the basis for the legislative proposal, policy or guideline or its ultimate rejection, if found as outrightly inimical to the interest of the OFWs.

According to the authors, the same policy was mobilized in 2003 but strong opposition from the Philippine government and affected stakeholders suspended its imposition.
“The provisions set forth in the unified contract scheme are deemed onerous on the rights and privileges of our migrant workers who seek employment in Saudi Arabia since it essentially allows the substitution of POEA standard contract of workers to a SANARCOM-approved work contract in its capacity as the employer’s representative”, the resolution stated.
Just recently, the lady solon from Zamboanga was invited by the German Foundation Fredrich Ebert Stifftung to attend a forum on labor and migration in Singapore.
In 2007, Climaco also addressed the Asian Parliamentarians and NGOs in Manila on the issue of Malaysian deportees. (Ryan Sta. Teresa)