Enforcement now anchors the Department of Migrant Workers’ agenda. Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said the agency has secured 36 convictions, closed 72 establishments, and pulled roughly 200,000 illegal job ads from Facebook and TikTok in its fight against illegal recruitment and trafficking.
He laid out the four-year record on DZMM’s “Balitapatan” ahead of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s fourth State of the Nation Address. Created in 2022 to consolidate OFW services, the agency now runs a full-cycle protection system spanning pre-departure processing, digital tools, evacuations, legal aid, family support, and reintegration.
That reach was tested during this year’s emergencies. Cacdac said the department tracked about 15 vessels carrying roughly 169 seafarers after strikes in the northern Black Sea. “We have already asked the manning agencies and ship owners to bring them all home because their ships were attacked,” he said. Agencies ignoring monitoring rules on conflict-zone deployment risk immediate suspension.
Under the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers, a worker may decline a voyage into a danger zone. “If they refuse to sail… they will be given a two-month salary, free repatriation and non-discrimination for future employment,” he said.
The response totals run large: about 10,500 repatriated from the Middle East turmoil, cash aid to some 18,000, and more than 30,000 helped through the One Repatriation Command Center. The Marcos administration recently topped up the AKSYON Fund with an added P3 billion.
Marcos has pressed the agency to prioritize families of casualties. “I have visited the families of the two deceased seafarers… We always look out for the welfare of the children left behind,” Cacdac said, recalling one child anxious about staying in school after a parent’s death.
Digitalization rounds it out: nearly 500,000 OFW Passes issued, services folded into eGov, and a Dubai pilot for digital contract verification bound for Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong.
