RIYADH: Filipino migrants’ rights group Migrante-Middle East Wednesday asked the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila to immediately appoint a person to replace Esteban Conejos Jr. as the undersecretary for migrant workers affairs at the DFA.

The group wonders why until now, five months after its vacancy, there is no undersecretary to head the DFA’s Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (DFA-OUMWA). “This explains why the legal assistance program and services of the government to distress overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) was an utter failure,” John Leonard Monterona, regional coordinator of Migrante-Middle East, said.

In February this year, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III appointed DFA Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr. as the country’s permanent representative to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

On March 14, Conejos’ appointment as Philippine permanent representative to the WTO was unanimously approved by the commission on appointments.

In a statement, Monterona said that during a House of Representatives budget hearing, DFA Secretary Albert Del Rosario confirmed that Philippine Peso (PHP) 52.2 million (SR 4.6 million) of the legal assistance fund under the care of his department remained unspent. He added that only PHP 7.78 million (SR 700,000) was used.

The DFA chief revealed that only 196 overseas workers had availed themselves of the fund from 2011 to August 2012.

“So, it was no surprise that DFA-OUMWA could not render the legal assistance program and services efficiently to distress OFWs, primarily because nobody is in charge to take the responsibilities of the office,” Monterona stated.

“Technically speaking, since the appointment of Conejos as permanent representative to the WTO, the DFA’s Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs was left with no official head who shall be responsible to administer the legal assistance program and services of the DFA,” he said.

Monterona added that the office performed vital functions for the provision and overall coordination of legal assistance services to Filipino migrant workers as well as overseas Filipinos in distress.

He called on DFA Secretary Albert Del Rosario to submit a list of nominees for the consideration of President Aquino, “so that the latter could immediately appoint and fill the vacant position that is of importance to us, overseas Filipinos, especially to thousands of distressed OFWs.”