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RP, CNMI labor talks under way
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Posted on Dec 16 1998
Philippine labor officials yesterday began discussions with the Northern Marianas on major changes the Manila government wants introduced in the existing Memorandum of Understanding to further protect Filipinos working in the commonwealth.
Valentin C. Guanio, deputy administrator for licensing and adjudication of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, along with other officials, met with Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio to press for a new agreement that will set specific guidelines in hiring Filipino workers in the future.
“The primary objective is to get the CNMI government sign an agreement with the Philippine government,” Guanio said in an interview, “The MOU is in general terms and it would be better if we have some form of implementing guidelines so it would be clear to everybody,” he added, without providing details.
The pact was put in place in 1995 to curb labor abuses against Filipino workers as well as protect local employers against unqualified employees. Part of the MOU was the creation of the Manila Liaison Office whose task is to ensure that documents submitted by CNMI-bound workers are not fraudulent and that their employers are capable of paying them.
Filipinos comprise more than 50 percent of the estimated 42,000 non-resident workers in the Northern Marianas, which over the years has become a popular job destination among Asian workers.
According to Guanio, part of the changes in the MOU will include a regular dialog with the local government to check the working conditions of Filipinos in the islands.
Atty. Vicente M Cabe, chief of the operations and surveillance division of POEA’s anti-illegal recruitment branch, underscored the need to strengthen cooperation between the two governments as he noted an apparent lack of cooperation by CNMI’s liaison office in Manila.
“To us the Manila Liaison Office should have more coordination and cooperation because during the previous administration there was not much linkages when the liaison office was supposed to be the linkage between CNMI and us,” Cabe said.
