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MANILA, Philippines -- The government has back-pedaled on the Department of Foreign Affairs’ proposal to require household service workers (HSWs) to undergo psychiatric testing before they leave for work abroad.
Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said Wednesday that her office was now reviewing the DFA proposal and considering also the "enhancement" of the psychological test that was already part of the medical examination that all Filipino workers leaving for abroad would take.
At the same, Baldoz said, a psychologist consultant had recommended not a psychiatric test, but a series of stress management exercises that would raise the level of coping mechanism for household service workers.
And to respond to the criticism that the proposal was an additional burden on the OFW, Baldoz said the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration might shoulder the cost of this enhancement of the psychological test or the stress management exercises.
She said the consensus to consider more options was made during the POEA governing board meeting-consultation with the DFA and the Office of the Vice President, which also looks into OFW issues.
"We have decided to get the Department of Health into the picture, to help us decide which options are better," Baldoz said.
Various migrant workers organizations raised a howl over the proposal to require leaving HSWs to undergo psychiatric tests.
They argued that the circumstances in which these OFWs have found themselves in the Middle East, not their predisposition, have made them mentally unstable.
When he made the proposal, DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos said that seven of 10 HSWs on death row have a history of mental instability in their family.
In its presentation to the POEA, the DFA said that of the 228 mental cases noted in 2006 (134) and 2007 (94), the Middle East had the most number at 178 or 78.1 percent; Asia with 26 cases or 11.4 percent; and Americas and Europe with 24 cases or 10.5 percent.
