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RP, CNMI agree on new labor deal
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Posted on Dec 21 1998
The Philippines and the Northern Marianas have agreed to come up with implementing guidelines that will give direction to a vague labor pact signed in 1995 which was designed to curb abuses against Filipino workers in CNMI as well as protect local employers.
Officials of both governments said the document, to be called “protocol”, will be drafted by CNMI’s Department of Labor and Immigration, and will be signed in Manila next year.
According to Valentin C. Guanio, deputy administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the guidelines will be attached to the Memorandum of Agreement to make it “more implementable.”
“The purpose of the guidelines is to reduce the MOU to more specific terms so it can be understood,” Guanio said in an interview after a three-day talks, “It will work for the benefit of both governments.”
Labor and Immigration Secretary Mark D. Zachares confirmed that there was agreement to draw up the implementing guidelines, but he declined to elaborate.
The pact was put in place in three years ago in an attempt to eliminate labor abuses against Filipino workers as well as protect local employers against unqualified employees. Part of the MOU was the creation of the Manila Liaison Office whose task is to ensure that documents submitted by CNMI-bound workers are not fraudulent and that their employers are capable of paying them.
Filipinos comprise more than 50 percent of the estimated 42,000 non-resident workers in the Northern Marianas, which over the years has become a popular job destination among impoverished Asian workers.
Atty. Vicente Cabe, surveillance chief of POEA, said the implementing guidelines will also take into consideration the new role of CNMI’s Manila Liaison Office in the Philippine capital in line with the local government’s plan to scale down its functions to labor matters.
“They said they are going to redirect the role of the liaison office and we hope this would strengthen the cooperation between our government and CNMI,” Cabe said.
The liaison office was created during the previous administration to assist local residents seeking medical treatment in Manila and screen Filipinos applying for jobs in the commonwealth.
