“The meeting was one way of knowing what is happening to our compatriots in the country. We were able to hear the complaints of aggrieved OFWs. We can now plan how we could assist them,” said Valenciano.

Mike Garlan, KGS secretary-general, said the meeting also facilitated the exchange of information about the incidents and facts regarding OFW cases, thus helping POLO-OWWA officials plan what course of action to take to protect OFWs’ labor rights.

Garlan added, however, that distressed OFWs were saddened by the fact that nobody from POLO-OWWA represented them during their first labor hearing in the first week of October, despite the fact that case officers had promised to closely coordinate with them.

KGS chairperson Eric Jocson added that his group had been conducting case dialogues with the Philippine Embassy’s concerned officials but this was not on a regular basis.

“We hope that such dialogues would be held more frequently. As the need arose, we normally set a case dialogue with embassy officials but now we would like to make it regular so that numerous cases involving abuses against OFWs would be properly attended to,” he said.

“We also have several requests for assistance involving OFWs languishing in jails because their relatives have been asking us about them,” he added.