Chapter 5

The Migrant Workers and

Overseas Filipino Act of 1995
R.A. No. 8042
GROUP #5:
Diane Clare Malimban
Ana Katrina Guarin
Liza S. Lucban
Cerah Manalang
Regine Ocavo
Migrant Worker
• A migrant worker is an
overseas Filipino worker.
• A person who is to be engaged
or has been engaged in a
remunerated activity in a
country of which he is not a
citizen, or on board a vessel
navigating the foreign seas,
other than a government ship
used for military or non-
commercial purposes, or on an
installation located offshore or
on high seas.
Remunerated activity
• A person is deemed to
have been “engaged in a
remunerated activity” if
he has been promised or
assured employment
overseas.
Deployment of Migrant Workers
• Migrant workers can be deployed only in countries
where the rights of Filipino workers are protected.

• INDICATIONS:
• A. Has existing labor and social laws protecting the
rights of migrant workers;
• B. Is a signatory to or ratifier of multilateral
conventions, declarations, or resolutions relating to the
protection of workers, including migrant workers;
C. Has concluded a bilateral agreement with the
Philippine government on the protection of the rights of
overseas Filipino workers
• With regard to Filipino
seafarer, their deployment to
vessels navigating the foreign
seas or to installations located
offshore or on high seas will
be allowed only when the
owners/employers are
compliant with international
laws and standards that
protect the rights of migrant
workers.
• With regard to companies and contractors with
international operations, deployment of Filipino
workers thereat will be allowed if they are compliant
with standards and conditions embodied in the
employment contracts prescribed by the POEA.
• In the absence of clear showing that any of the
aforementioned guarantees exist in the country of
destination of the migrant workers, the POEA will not
issue a deployment permit.
Liability of the POEA Governing
Board, Gov’t officials and Employees
• shall suffer the penalties
of removal or dismissal
from service with
disqualification to hold
appointive public office
for 5 years
Compulsory Insurance Coverage
for agency-hired migrant workers
• Compulsory insurance at no cost to
the worker
• What if the migrant worker was
made to shoulder the cost of
insurance premium?
• The insurance company must be:
Duly registered with the Insurance
Commission
In existence and operational for at
least 5 years
With a net worth of at least
500,000,000.00 to be determined by
the Insurance Commission
With a current certificate of authority
• The recruitment agency or
manning agency has the right
to choose the insurance
provider.
• The migrant worker should be
given an authenticated copy
of the insurance policy.
• The certificate of insurance
coverage should be submitted
to the POEA as a requirement
for the issuance of an
Overseas Employment
Certificate.
• Insurance policies issued
by foreign insurance
companies to seafarers
shall be accepted by the
POEA if the minimum
coverage are complied
with.
• Migrant workers recruited by the POEA on a
government-to-government arrangement shall be
covered by a foreign employer’s guarantee fund
established by the POEA.
• Migrant workers who are classified as rehires, name
hires or direct hires may request their foreign employers
to pay for the cost of insurance coverage or opt to pay
the premium themselves.
DISQUALIFICATION
• Insurance companies who have directors, partners,
officers, employees or agents with relatives, within
the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity,
who work or have interest in any of the government
agencies involved in the overseas employment
program are disqualified from providing this workers’
insurance coverage.
COVERAGE OF THE INSURANCE
The insurance policy which should be effective for the duration of the migrant
worker’s employment contract and shall cover:
• a. US$15,000.00 for accidental death, payable to the migrant worker’s
beneficiaries;
• b. US$10,000.00 for natural death, payable to the migrant worker’s beneficiaries
• c. US$ 7,500.00 for permanent total disability, payable to the migrant worker,
• d. US$ 100.00 per month for subsistence allowance for a maximum of 6 months
if the migrant worker is involved in a case or litigation for the protection of his
rights in the receiving country
• e. Repatriation cost of the worker when employment is terminated without any
valid cause, including the transport of his or her personal belongings;
• f. Money claims arising from employer’s liability which may be awarded of given
to the worker in a judgment or settlement of his or her case in the National
Labor Relations Commission;
• g. Cost of transportation for compassionate visit by one family member or
requested individual to the major airport closest to the place of hospitalization
of the worker, in case the migrant worker is hospitalized or confined for at least 7
consecutive days.
• h. Cost of medical evacuation, when proximate and adequate medical facility is
not available to the migrant worker, as determined by the insurance company’s
physician or consulting physician; and
• i. Cost of medical repatriation, when medically necessary as determined by the
attending physician, and medically cleared for travel by the commercial carrier.
The ff documents duly indicated by the
Philippine foreign posts, shall be sufficient
evidence to substantiate the claim:
• Death certificate
• Police or Accident Report
• Medical Certificate
Repatriation of migrant workers
Emergency Repatriation
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in
coordination with appropriate international agencies
shall undertake the repatriation of the workers.

Mandatory Repatriation
(underage migrant worker)
 Responsible officers in the foreign services
without delay shall repatriate the said worker
 Effect on the recruitment agency
Illegal Recruitment of Migrant
Workers
 Recruitment refers to the canvassing,
enlisting, contracting, transporting, utilizing,
hiring or procuring workers, including referrals,
contract services, promising, or advertising for
appointment abroad, whether for profit or not.
Illegal Recruitment of Migrant
Workers
2 Major ways of Illegal Recruitment

 Licensed or authorized to recruit BUT…

Other terms on Illegal Recruitment
Syndicated Illegal Recruitment
 Carried out by three (3) or more persons
conspiring with one another
Large Scale Illegal Recruitment
 Committed against three (3) or more persons
individually or as a group
Economic Sabotage
Who can file for criminal complaint?
 Secretary of DOLE
 Administrator of POEA
 Any aggrieved party

5 years vs. 20 years

Penalty for illegal recruitment of
migrant workers
Simple illegal recruitment Large Scale or Syndicated
illegal recruitment
12 years and 1 day to 20 Life imprisonment
years imprisonment
Fine ranging from 1M- 2M Fine ranging from 2M-5M
php php

 When is the maximum penalty given?

Jurisdiction of the POEA
 Administrative aspect of recruitment
violations committed by recruitment or
manning agencies

 Disciplinary actions cases and other special

cases involving employers, principals,
contracting partners and overseas workers
processed by the POEA

* POEA also has the power to order closure of an

establishment upon preliminary examination
Effect of closure order
 Inclusion of all officers and responsible
employees in the List of Persons with
Derogatory Record

 Disqualification from participating in the

overseas employment program
Remedies
 Motion to Re-Open Establishment
 Motion to Lift Closure Order
 Appeal
Remedies from a Closure
 Inclusion of all officers and responsible
employees in the List of Persons with
Derogatory Record

 Disqualification from participating in the

overseas employment program
Who can file a motion to re-open
the establishment?
• The owner of the building
• The building administrator
• Any person or entity legitimately operating within
the premised closed or padlocked and whose
operations or activities are distinct from the
recruitment activities of the entity subject to the
closure order.
Motion to re-open will be
granted if proven that:
• The office is not the subject of the closure order;
• The contract of lease with the owner of the building
administrator has already been canceled or
terminated;
• The office is shared by a person or entity not involved
in illegal activities, whether directly or indirectly;
• Any other ground that the POEA may consider as
valid and meritorious.
Who can file a motion to lift a
closure order?
•Only the person or entity against whom
the closure was issued and
implemented can file a motion to lift a
closure order.
Grounds for lifting of the
closure order:
•The person has proven that it is not
involved in illegal recruitment activities,
whether directly or indirectly; or
•Any other analogous ground which the
POEA may find valid and meritorious.
 APPEAL
•The order of the POEA Administrator
denying the motion to lift a closure
order or denying the motion to re-open
may be appealed to the Secretary
within ten (10) days from service or
receipt thereof.
 Prescriptive period for filing
administrative cases
•Administrative cases involving
recruitment violation and disciplinary
action should be filed within three (3)
years from accrual of the cause of
action, otherwise, it will be barred by
prescription.
 National Labor Relations
Commission
•The Labor Arbiters of NLRC have the
original and exclusive jurisdiction to
hear and decide claims of migrant
workers arising out of an employer-
employee relationship.
 Reliefs of illegally dismissed
migrant workers:
•Payment of salaries for the unexpired
portion of his employment contract;
and
•Full reimbursement of his placement fee
and the deductions made with interest
of 12% peer annum.
 Recruitment agencies and the
employer solidarily liable
•Recruitment agencies for overseas
employment are jointly and severally
liable with the principal or employer for
all claims and liabilities which may arise
from the implementation of the
employment contract.
 Exceptions to the solidary
liability rule:
• When the workers themselves are the ones who
insisted that the recruitment agency to send them
back abroad despite their knowledge that the foreign
employer might not be able to pay their wages
because of financial difficulties and they agreed not
to hold the agency responsible therefor;
• When the workers were recruited by the supposed
recruitment agency without the latter’s knowledge
and consent.
Services and privileges available
to migrant workers:
• Exemption from travel tax and airport fee
• Exemption from documentary stamp
• Travel advisory/information dissemination
• Migrant Workers and Other Overseas Filipinos Resource Center
• Migrant Workers Loan Guarantee Fund
• Congressional Migrant Workers Scholarship Fund
• National Reintegration Center for Overseas Filipino Workers
(NRCO)
• Legal Assistance
• Sectoral Representation in Congress
 INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES RIGHT ACT
OF 1997
Outline
• Brief Background
• Legal Framework
• The Indigenous People’s right act (IPRA)
• Rights under IPRA
• The NCIP
• Status of Implementation of IPRA
Brief Background
Demographic profile of
Indigenous peoples
• The National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) estimates
the population of Indigenous people (IPs) in the Philippines to be
around 12 million.
• Ips roughly constitutes 13% of the total population of the
Philippines.
• 61% of indigenous people found in Mindanao, 33% in Luzon and 6%
in Visayas.
• Indigenous people were referred to as
“National Minorities” by the 1973 Philippine
constitution and as “National cultural
minorities” by the 1987 Philippine
constitution.
• With the passage of the Indigenous
people’s Rights act of 1997, they are now
referred as Indigenous people (IP) or
Indigenous cultural communities (ICC).
Ancestral land and indigenous
peoples
• Land is embedded on the existence of the indigenous
people, which is directly related to their culture and
immediate environment (Fernandez V: 1983 in Montillo-
Burton: 2003).
• Land is life. It is the “territorial base that is
indispensable as the living space for the community and
its sources of food and other needs”
• It is their abode since time immemorial
• It is the material basis of their collective identity and
survival as indigenous peoples
• Ancestral domain to the indigenous peoples is a holistic
concept encompassing not only the land but including
its resources: the rivers, forests, the flora and fauna, the
minerals underneath and the air above.
• It is not a commodity to be sold or exchanged but a
resource to be nurtured for future generations.
Regalian Doctrine
• All lands of the public domain, waters, minerals, coal,
petroleum, and other mineral oils, all forces of potential
energy, fisheries, forests or timber, wildlife, flora and
fauna, and other natural resources are owned by the
State.”
 Contradictory land systems
ANCESTRAL LAND
• Extreme diversity & flexibility in forms
of ownership: from communal to semi
communal to private
• Rights to land derived from
inheritance, labor, actual
improvements
• Ownership and rights regulated
through customary laws, which the
communities themselves evolved
• Viewed as collective legacy, to be
maintained across many generations
• Source of life and livelihood for its
occupants
STATE SYSTEM OF LAND
OWNERSHIP
• Highly rigid forms of ownership:
basically, either public or private
• Rights to land granted by state
and/or sale
• Ownership and rights defined by
national laws, which are beyond the
direct control of communities
• Viewed as investment to generate
profit, or as disposable property
•Just one of several factors of
production
Customary Laws
• “The laws, practices, customs of indigenous and local communities which
are an intrinsic and central part of the way of life of these communities.
• Customary laws are embedded in the culture and values of a community or
society; they govern acceptable standard of behaviour and are actively
enforced by members of the community.”
• Generally, customary laws are not written , but are transmitted through
oral tradition and practice.
• Since time immemorial, indigenous peoples have regulated their societies
by internal social-political and cultural religious structures and processes.
• These informal and flexible rules and functions or customs and traditions
were passed on from one generation to the next , eventually evolving into
customary laws that are enforced by the community.
human rights concerns
• Despite IPRA as a legal safeguard, military operations
have accompanied the implementation of mining,
logging, and energy projects because of the people’s
opposition to them. Army troops are regularly deployed
in the territories of the Agtas, Aetas, Mangyans,
Lumads, and Igorots
• • As of latest, 34 recorded extra judicial killings since
2010
• • 15 SLAPPS (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public
Participation) against IP leaders and advocates
Legal framework
• Section 22, Article VIII of the 1987 Philippine
Constitution. “The State recognizes and promotes the
rights of indigenous cultural communities within the
framework of national unity and development”.
• Article I “ Indigenous people have the right to the full
employment, as a collective or as individuals, of all
human rights and fundamental freedoms as recognized
in the charter of the United Nations, the universal
declaration of Human rights 4 and international human
rights law”

• Case: Cruz v. Secretary of Environment and Natural

Resources
Cruz v. Secretary of Environment and
Natural Resources (GR. No. 135385, December 6,
2000)
• There is nothing in the law that grants to the ICCs /IPs
ownership over the natural resources within their
ancestral domain.
• What is granted is the right to the small scale utilization
of these resources, and at the same time, a priority in
their large scale development and exploitation.
• Ancestral lands and ancestral domains are not part of
the lands of the public domain.
• They are private lands and belonging to the ICCs /IPs by
native title, which is a concept of private land land title
that existed irrespective of any royal grant from the
state.
Indigenous People
• Group of people identified by self- ascription and
ascription by others.
• Who have continuously lived as organized community
on community bounded and defined territory.
• And who have, under claims of ownership since time
immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized such
territories
• Sharing common bonds of language, customs and
traditions.
Policy
• The state shall recognize and promote all the rights of
Indigenous people (IPs) within the framework of
national unity and development to ensure their
economic, social and cultural well being.
Ancestral Domain
• All areas generally belonging to IPs comprising lands,
inland waters, coastal areas and natural resources
therein held under a claim of ownership, occupied or
possessed by IPs since time immemorial, continuously
to the present and which are necessary to ensure their
economic, social and cultural welfare.
CADT and CALT
• Refers to a title formally recognizing the rights of
possession and ownership of IPs over their ancestral
domains identified and delineated in accordance with
the laws.
• These titles are based on Native Title, referring to pre
conquest rights to lands and domain which, as far back
as memory reaches have been held under a claim of
private ownership by ICCs or IPs
Free and Prior Informed consent
• The consensus of all members of the IPs to be
determined in accordance with their customary laws
and practices.
• Free from any external manipulation, inference and
coercion.
• And obtained after fully disclosing the intent and scope
of activity, in a language and process understandable to
the community.
Four Major Rights under IPRA
• Right to Ancestral domain and Land
• Right to Self Governance and Empowerment
• Right to Social Justice and Human Rights
• Right to cultural Integrity.
The National Commission on
Indigenous People (NCIP)
• The primary implementing agency of IPRA
• It has 7 commissioners appointed by the President, one
for each ethnographic regions.
• NCIP exercises administrative, quasi legislative and
quasi judicial functions.
NCIP Powers and Function

Serves as the primary Issues ancestral land or

government agency domain titles

Formulates and implement

policies, plan s, programs and
projects for the economic,
social and cultural
development.
 Process

Reports of
Petition for Delineation Preparation Investigation Notice and Endorsement
v and other
delineation proper of maps publication to NCIP
documents