OWWA medical center pushed for migrant workers, dependents

Sen. Loren Legarda has sought the help of her colleagues in Congress in expediting the passage of new legislation that would install a new, modern and fully equipped medical center for migrant Filipino workers and their dependents.

Under the bill authored by Legarda herself, the special hospital would be established by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

As proposed by Legarda, the OWWA Migrant Workers Hospital would:

• Provide comprehensive health-care services to all migrant workers who are OWWA contributors, as well as their legal dependents;

• Supplement the existing package of services under the Medical Care Program so as to include preventive, promotive, diagnostic, curative and rehabilitative programs;

• Conduct medical examinations to ensure the physical and mental capabilities of all would-be overseas contract workers duly covered by an approved job order; and,

• Install a system that would effectively monitor the condition of patients, and generate relevant information in aid of policy formulation.

Legarda's bill seeks to give more meaning to the constitutional mandate for the state to afford full protection to labor, both local and overseas.

More than 3,000 Filipinos leave the country every day to work abroad, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

Legarda lamented that a growing number of migrant workers, mostly women, return home "badly battered and bruised," and requiring adequate care, treatment and rehabilitation in a suitable facility.

Under Senate Bill 938, a seven-member board of directors would govern the OWWA Migrant Workers Hospital.

The board would be composed of the Secretary of Labor and Employment, Secretary of Health, Secretary of Social Welfare and Development, the OWWA and POEA administrators, plus and one representative each from land-based and sea-based migrant laborers.