A POLICY prohibiting parents from working abroad if their children are “too young” is now being proposed by the regional office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Association (Owwa)-Davao.
This proposal came after the death of a two-year old child, Earl John Cagalitan, after suffering from battering by his relatives.
The victim is the youngest son of Erlinda Cagalitan, an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Bahrain for 10 years and a single mother. His son was left in the care of her nephew and his wife while she worked abroad.
Owwa-Davao regional director Eduardo Bellido told reporters Monday, November 21, during the Kapehan Sa Dabaw at SM City–Annex, that a lot of cases have been recorded in their agency wherein OFWs especially mothers leaving their children even as early as one month old, sacrificing the emotional upbringing and care for the children.
“This is another aspect that we are trying to look into, we should not only focus on the OFW's welfare alone but also to their families especially the children who are left behind here. Maybe we can craft a policy disallowing mothers from working abroad in cases that they still have children who are still three years old and below,” Bellido said.
With this, Bellido urged the local government units in the region to look into the viability of passing an ordinance on this matter.
Bellido said in Compostela Valley (Comval), there is an existing local ordinance prohibiting parents from leaving their children for abroad if their son or daughter is still too young to be left behind.
“This ordinance in Comval can be replicated if seen viable,” Bellido said.
The regional director said Owwa as directed by labor and employment secretary Silvestre Bello III, provided initial assistance to Erlinda.
These are financial assistance of P50,000, livelihood and training, and psycho-social counseling.
Asked on what are the programs of Owwa for the protection of OFW’s children and family, Bellido was quick to add the OFW family circle program has been implemented for years to monitor the condition of the OFW family.
As of November, a total of 180 OFW family circles have been recorded or some 5,000 members in Davao region.
Bellido said to strengthen programs for the protection of OFW family, they will be working together with the Local Government Units, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Justice, Philippine Council for the Welfare of Children and other advocacy groups to combat abuse among children.
On Wednesday, November 23, an interagency meeting will be held in the DSWD-Davao office along R. Magsaysay Avenue to discuss further the matter.
Last week, President Rodrigo Duterte condemned the rising cases of child abuse in the country saying he will look on the case and talk to the DWSD upon returning from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit 2016 in Lima, Peru.
Last month, the Davao City Government launched the “Kean Gabriel hotline” for child abuse, named after three-year-old Kean Gabriel Agustin who died from being beaten up and placed in a sack in the hands of his stepfather.