Published : Wednesday, November 28, 2012 00:00 Article Views : 15
Written by : Ryan Ponce Pacpaco
THE chairman of the House committee on overseas workers affairs strongly urged yesterday Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario to move for the reconsideration of an Italian government “discriminatory” policy exposing some 200,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to “identity crisis” as their middle names are deleted in all their documents.
Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello, the panel’s chairman, said the Aquino administration through Del Rosario should resist the policy as OFWs in Italy have been encountering concerns on insurance claims and legal problems to those with similar names that appear in the police computer database.
Bello cited great injustice if OFWs would not get their insurance claims out of discrepancy in the names on the passport and the Italian documents, adding that the policy contained in the circular only applies to Filipinos while other foreign residents in Italy are still allowed to use their middle names in their Italian documents.
“We have heard this problem in the (House) committee and the DFA promised to look into the matter. My position is that the Philippine government should request the Italian government to make an exception of Filipinos and allow them to use their middle names in official documents,” Bello stressed in an interview.
Gabriela party-list Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan agreed with Bello, stressing that a high-level approach through President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III should be made to help OFWs in Italy.
“This is a crisis and no less than President Aquino should plead in behalf of the Filipinos,” Ilagan said in a separate interview.
“You know that issue was raised by Gabriela two years ago. The OFWs were collecting the names of those who were going to be affected. Even during the budget hearings, Gabriela badgered the DFA. But the DFA could not give a definitive course of action. Now, pumutok na ang problema,” she added. Under the Italian circular, only the first name and surname are to be used by OFWs.
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