PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has issued an executive order (EO) institutionalizing access to protection services for refugees, stateless persons and asylum seekers.
The Office of the President published on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, EO 163, which was signed by Duterte on February 28.
The EO was issued in accordance with the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Person, and 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
It is the Commonwealth Act (CA) 613, or the "Philippine Immigration Act of 1940, that “recognizes the admission of immigrants without nationality, and grants the President the power to admit aliens who are refugees for religious, political or racial reasons, in such classes of cases and under such conditions as he may prescribe, for humanitarian reasons, and when not opposed to public interest.”
“In this regard, the State shall closely monitor and ensure full protection of the rights of POCs to liberty and security, and freedom of movement. Subject to applicable laws and issuances, the minimum standards for the treatment of refugees shall be assured,” the EO reads.
“These shall include the provision of access to socioeconomic services, social security benefits, gainful employment and humane working conditions, education, participation in judicial and administrative citizenship proceedings, legal assistance and access to courts, and freedom of religion,” it added.
The EO defined refugees as “a person who, owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his or her nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his or her former habitual residence as a result of such events is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.
An asylum seeker is a person who submitted an application or formal written claim to a refugee or stateless status, while a stateless person was not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its domestic law.
The EO ordered the Inter-Agency Committee on the protection of refugees, stateless persons and asylum seekers, including the Department of Justice, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Education, among others, to ensure the provision of relevant services to the said persons.
Duterte issued the EO amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. (SunStar Philippines)