DAVAO City Councilor Rachel Zozobrado proposed the “Safe Migration Ordinance” seeking to promote safer migration for Dabawenyos following the increased cases of human trafficking in the city.
Zozobrado, who chairs the Committee on Migrant Workers, said that the Safe Migration Ordinance, the Kalinga sa Migranteng Dabawenyo Ordinance, would be incorporated into an integrated program to help Dabawenyos who aim to migrate abroad.
“If passed and when implemented faithfully, its success will never trend online because its success will be everything that does not happen: the fee that is never stolen, the contract that is never substituted, the passport that is never confiscated, the minor who is never recruited, the mother never has to claim her child at the airport cargo bay,” she said during her privilege speech on July 14, 2026.
The councilor said that the ordinance aims to promote a culture of safe migration, which is patterned after the city’s culture of security and is anchored in the practice of verify, report, protect, and participate.
The ordinance also seeks to adopt the “Apat Dapat” standard, which is “lisensiyado, aprubado, opisyal, at tamang bayad,” that would be communicated in Filipino and Cebuano so that every applicant understands everything before any money is spent.
As a means to commemorate Davao City Safe Migration and Anti-Illegal Recruitment Month, the ordinance would designate one month during which intensified information dissemination would be conducted.
The ordinance aims to make job fairs safer by separating and clearly marking overseas and local tracks, requiring verification of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) job fair authority for every participating agency, and prohibiting the “bait-and-switch” funneling of local job seekers to overseas offers, as well as providing a 48-hour cooling-off period so that applicants would not be pressured into signing on the spot.
It seeks to provide workers with disclosures on their entitlements under DMW rules in writing and in a language they understand before any fee is paid.
The proposed ordinance would institutionalize safeguards against recognized indicators of trafficking, whether it be passport confiscation, contract substitution, tourist-visa deployment, coerced accommodation debt, or the recruitment of minors. Through the ordinance, there would be a clear path through the OFW Families’ Welfare and Crisis Center, Davao City Safe Migration Desk, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and PNP Women and Children Protection Desk.
Zozobrado said the ordinance encourages aspiring migrants through the DCplinado OFW Campaign to be informed, law-abiding, financially prepared, and professionally excellent.
She said that to ensure the ordinance would be implemented, they would enforce the tri-lingual Pre-Migration Agreement, which is voluntary and waives no rights, a multi-stakeholder Safe Migration Council, as well as performance indicators and oversight by the Sangguniang, and penalties that are in line with the Local Government Code.
Zozobrado said she is coordinating with the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) president to conduct three separate virtual meetings for the 182 barangays in the city together with the DMW, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa), and OFW Families’ Welfare and Crisis Center in the establishment of a Barangay OFW Help Desk.
The privilege speech on the proposed ordinance was then approved on first reading.
To recall, Zozobrado raised concerns over the spike in illegal recruitment in Davao City on April 14, 2026. She said that Davao City recorded 72 human trafficking-related cases as of Dec. 31, 2025 — the highest in the Davao Region.
She said Davao del Norte recorded 13 cases, followed by Davao Oriental (12), Davao del Sur (10), Davao de Oro (two), and none in Davao Occidental.
Of the 72 individuals in Davao City who sought an Illegal Recruitment Certificate, most came from Talomo (16), Marilog (15), Toril (nine), Calinan (seven), Buhangin (four), Bunawan and Poblacion (three each), Agdao (two), and Paquibato and Tugbok (one each). Eleven cases remain unidentified but are from the city. RGP
