MANILA-- The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) is expected to issue the implementing guidelines for the Selective Balik-Manggagawa (BM) Program for Iraq by end of November, an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Wednesday.
"POEA just informed the DFA they are fast-tracking the implementing guidelines for the Selective Balik Manggagawa Program for Iraq," Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Elmer Cato said in a tweet addressed to DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.
"POEA hopes to issue guidelines before end of the month to allow our workers to spend Christmas here with their families," he added.
According to Cato, the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad began pushing for the initiative in 2016, which seeks the exemption of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) already in Iraq from the deployment ban and allow them to fly home and return to their jobs.
The POEA approved the proposal in September this year, almost nine months after the DFA accepted it in December 2017.
At present, the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad is still waiting for the Implementing Rules and Guidelines to implement the POEA Governing Resolution Board No. 06, series of 2018.
Cato said there are 4,000 OFWs in Iraq with 3000 in Kurdistan who are already covered by Balik Manggagawa. Kurdistan is under Crisis Alert Level II.
"Those who will be covered by the Selective Balik Manggagawa program are those in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq currently under Alert Level III," he said. (PNA)
