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Labor Code · Recruitment and Placement of Workers · Chapter I – General Provisions

Article 19

Office of Emigrant Affairs

Not amended

(a) Pursuant to the national policy to maintain close ties with Filipino migrant communities and promote their welfare as well as establish a data bank in aid of national manpower policy formulation, an Office of Emigrant Affairs is hereby created in the Department of Labor. The Office shall be a unit at the Office of the Secretary and shall initially be manned and operated by such personnel and through such funding as are available within the Department and its attached agencies. Thereafter, its appropriation shall be made part of the regular General Appropriations Decree. as well as violation of terms and conditions of overseas employment; (m) Establish a system for speedy and efficient enforcement of decisions laid down through the exercise of its adjudicatory function [Note: Sec. 10 of R.A. No. 8042 clipped the POEA’s quasi-judicial functions.]; (n) Establish and maintain close relationship and enter into joint projects with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine Tourism Authority, Manila International Airport Authority, Department of Justice, Department of Budget and Management and other relevant government entities, in the pursuit of its objectives. The Administration shall also establish and maintain joint projects with private organizations, domestic or foreign, in the furtherance of its objectives [Note: Paragraph (n) should be read together with the provisions of R.A. No. 8042. The functions previously exercised by Philippine Tourism Authority are now performed by the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) pursuant to R.A. No. 9593, “Tourism Act of 2009”].

(b) The office shall, among others, promote the well-being of emigrants and maintain their close link to the homeland by:

1)

serving as a liaison with migrant communities;

2)

provision of welfare and cultural services;

3)

promote and facilitate re-integration of migrants into the national mainstream;

4)

promote economic, political and cultural ties with the communities; and

5) generally to undertake such activities as may be appropriate to enhance such cooperative links.

Editor’s notes from DOLE (1)

Now the Commission on Filipinos Overseas attached to the Department of Foreign Affairs, pursuant to B.P. Blg. 79, “An Act Creating the Commission on Filipinos Overseas and For Other Purposes.”

Text and numbering follow the Department of Labor and Employment's 2022 edition of Presidential Decree No. 442, as amended and renumbered under DOLE Department Advisory No. 01, series of 2015. Former article numbers are shown in brackets. Notes are DOLE's editorial notes. Amendments after that edition are not included. For information and research only, and not legal advice. For certified copies, refer to the Official Gazette or the issuing agency.