THE board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has overturned its previous policy giving full blanket authority to the secretary of labor to approve the renewal of license of manpower agencies sending Filipino labor abroad.

POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz confirmed that this decision was reached when the agency conducted its board meeting on Friday.

The new policy overturned a board decision in December where former labor secretary Arturo Brion asked the POEA board to delegate to him the authority to approve the license of recruitment firms which was previously Baldoz’s job.

That resolution was in effect January this year and was sternly protested by recruitment agencies who said Brion’s strict rules would severely work against the deployment of Filipino skills abroad.

Baldoz said while the previous policy was approved by the POEA board, Brion made some “additional requirements” like suspending the renewal of an agency’s permit if it has a single pending labor case.

Recruitment firms said about 50 license renewals were on hold from January to March because of Brion’s “antimarket” policy.

In March, the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters Inc. (FAME) wrote to new Labor Secretary Marianito Roque urging him to consider moving back to the old procedure of license renewal for recruitment firms.

“The decision, though long overdue, is welcome news, and that is good for the overseas recruitment sector. It could have averted a disaster in terms of lower deployment numbers for the second half of 2008,” said Eduardo Mahiya, FAME president.

“I am very glad and thankful that Secretary Roque and Administrator Baldoz had seen the wisdom of the industry’s position that the new procedure imposed by former secretary Brion was antimarket and anti-OFW; that it was a decision based on the whim and caprice of Brion; that it unduly encroaches upon the legitimate powers of the POEA; and only lengthens the already very long bureaucratic red tape within the government’s regulatory bowels. It will not do the country any good,” added Mahiya.

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THE board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has overturned its previous policy giving full blanket authority to the secretary of labor to approve the renewal of license of manpower agencies sending Filipino labor abroad.

THE Delegation of the European Commission in the Philippines (EC) has urged Philippine exporters to its member-states to register chemical substances contained in their products to be able to qualify for the new rules adopted on June 1.

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