| The agreement ensures OFWs free access to the courts and the non-denial of
legal assistance by reason of poverty, according to POEA Administrator
Reynaldo Regalado. |
| The MOA was signed by Regalado, OWWA Administrator Eleuterio Gardiner, IBA
Davao City Chapter President Laurente Ilagan, Ateneo Legal Services Office
Executive Director Fr. Agustin Nazareno, UM Legal Aid Office Suising
Attorney Renato Pagatpatan and Southern Philippines Federation of Labor
National Secretary and Legal Counsel Wilbur Fuentes. |
| The pilot project was initially launched in Mindanao where there is an
alarming increase in the number of victims of illegal recruitment as well as
complaints of unpaid money claims of OFWs. |
| Given this level of scrutiny, Legal Services lawyers have generally been
adept at hewing to the maze of rules with which political opponents have
circumscribed their activities when efforts to pull the budget plug
failed. Its a bit surprising that employees of North Carolinas
Farmworkers Legal Services were caught earlier this year in Mexico,
counseling migrant laborers contrary to their own agencys regulations.
The rules say non-citizens can only be helped on American soil. |
| The stepped-up campaign was waged following President Joseph Erap Ejercito
Estradas fresh crackdown on illegal recruiters in the light of the
suspected systematic murder of OFWs, whose organs are being sold by an
international syndicate in cahoots with unscrupulous Filipino recruiters. |
