CATEGORIES OF OVERSEAS FILIPINOS

CATEGORIES OF OVERSEAS FILIPINOS

My dear countrymen, as a former Foreign Service Officer (FSO), I have not lost interest in the concern for overseas Filipinos, more so that I have been influenced by my late brother, to care for them. In my early years as an FSO, I was already attracted by the Assistance to Nationals (ATN) function of the DFA. Looking back, I am now very grateful to my former boss, DFA Undersecretary Federico M. Macaranas for assigning me to do some coordinative functions with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO).

With the creation of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), there are now the Philippine government agencies that are helping and caring for overseas Filipinos, adding to DFA and CFO. I gather however that many Filipinos could not really tell the difference between the three agencies, and so I will now try to define that for the sake of everyone. The function of the latest addition, the DMW is easy to define. They oversee all Filipinos who are under contract to work abroad. Formerly called Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs), they are now called Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

The function of the CFO is also easy to define. They oversee all Filipinos who have been petitioned by their relatives to migrate abroad. Technically, they are categorized as “immigrants” when they leave, but they become “emigrants” once they settle in their host countries. Included in this category are the “green card” holders who settle in the United States, but do not choose to acquire American citizenship yet, for one reason or another. During this interregnum, they remain as Filipino citizens.

By process of elimination, all Filipinos abroad who are not under the care of either the DMW or the CFO are deemed to be under the care of the DFA. Fortunately, our government has made provisions for this “catch all” mechanism, because there are really many Filipinos who are abroad, but do not belong to the clear-cut categories under the DMW or the CFO. For example, there are many Filipinos who are working abroad without formal work contracts and are therefore unknown to the DMW.

The CFO is a cabinet rank agency that is under the Office of the President (OP). When I met with the incumbent CFO Secretary Dante Francis Ang II, we shared some ideas about how he could improve the services of the CFO. One of his ideas is to establish better cooperation with the DFA. According to Microsoft Copilot, the functions of the CFO are as follows:

Registration and Orientation: The CFO registers Filipino emigrants and provides pre-departure orientation seminars to help them prepare for their journey abroad.

Promoting Interests: It develops and implements programs that promote the interests and well-being of Filipinos abroad.

Cultural Preservation: The CFO serves as a forum for preserving and enhancing the social, economic, and cultural ties of Filipinos abroad with the Philippines.

Liaison Services: It provides liaison services to Filipinos residing outside the Philippines with appropriate government and private agencies for business and other projects

I agreed with Secretary Ang that there should be CFO Attaches assigned to Philippine Embassies that are servicing jurisdictions where there are large populations of Filipino emigrants, after all it is allowed by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. In my opinion however, it may be in the best interests of Filipino emigrants to grant consular ranks to the CFO representatives who are assigned to our Consulates and Consulates General abroad, provided it is approved by the President, and subject to the rules of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Your friend, IKE SENERES/12-13-24/visit my blog senseneres.blogspot.com

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