MANILA, 19 March 2003 — The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Manila has temporarily suspended the implementation of the Unified Contract scheme here to clarify issues raised by recruitment agencies, OFW groups and lawmakers.

Staff at the embassy’s consular section said the deferment was ordered pending clarifications from the Saudi Labor Ministry on the issues.

A consular officer, who asked not to be identified, said they are accepting passports for visa stamping even without submission of the Unified Contract while the matter is being resolved.

The suspension order came as Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Jose Brillantes told a House committee on labor hearing that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) was going to ask the embassy to have the requirement of submission of Unified Contract lifted in order to process visas for Filipino maids.

Brillantes said the DFA was also conducting its own study on the controversial scheme, which has caused an uproar because of fears that it would lead to more problems for Filipino domestic helpers working in the Kingdom.

The Unified Contract was the result of an agreement between the Overseas Placement Association of the Philippines (OPAP) and the Saudi National Labor Committee (Sanarcom).

While Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Rosalinda Baldoz continued to wash their hands off the contract, Brillantes joined other officials in denouncing it.

“This contract is so glaringly one-sided and so glaringly oppressive to our workers,” said Brillantes, a former labor secretary who now heads the DFA’s Office of Migrant Worker Affairs (OMWA).

Brillantes said he would invite representatives of Sanarcom to air their side on the issue. “We have an invitation ready for Sanarcom,” he said.

Officials of the OPAP were invited to shed light of their participation in the deal, which had been vehemently opposed by the bigger Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. (PASEI) as disadvantageous to both Filipino domestic helpers and recruiters. Only two OPAP members attended.

Ofelia Gajete, president of Ledmir Human Resources Exchange Corp., admitted that her Saudi principal has sent her a Unified Contract verified by the Saudi Council of Commerce and Industry but she did not sign yet because she herself has reservations on many of its provisions.

She said her agency has not processed any Filipino worker under the terms and provisions of the Unified Contract.

Jocelyn A. Santos, a representative of YHMD International Manpower Services, Inc., admitted that indeed their agency signed and in fact processed at least 5 domestic helpers under the terms and provisions of US.

Santos said she was not personally aware what fate awaits the domestic helpers that her agency deployed using the new scheme.

Undersecretary Brillantes said results of the DFA study will be added to that of the committee put together by Labor Secretary Sto. Tomas to study the contract.

Labor Arbiter Tess Lora said the committee will be headed by Former Ambassador Roy Seneres, now head of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), in response to the adverse public opinion on the issue. Lora said the committee created by Sto. Tomas will come out with its recommendation within two weeks. Aside from herself and Señeres, the other members of the committee will be NLRC Commissioner Tito Genilo and POEA Director Jaime Gimenez.

Sto. Tomas said Seneres volunteered to help solve the problems that may be created by the Unified Contract.

Before this, Señeres wrote to the labor chief requesting her to “intervene and request all concerned to hold in abeyance the implementation of the scheme.

Heherson Alvarez, President Arroyo’s adviser for overseas Filipino communities, earlier recommended that the president personally order a stop to the contract amid the refusal of labor officials to lift a finger.