OFW Party List Representative Marissa “Del Mar” Magsino filed House Resolution No. 1373 urging the appropriate committees of the House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry into the implementation of the ‘Inter-agency Medical Repatriation Assistance Program’ (IMRAP) for Overseas Filipinos (OFs), particularly Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), and its complementary program, the establishment of dedicated wards for OFWs by the Department of Health (DOH).
Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 2017-0001, issued on June 16, 2017 created the IMRAP with the objective of instituting an integrated system and process flow on medical repatriation of OFs and OFWs, to harmonize existing procedures, and to formalize inter-agency coordination and cooperation among participating government agencies.
In alignment with the One-Country-Team-Approach, the JMC No. 2017-001 included the following Member Agencies under IMRAP: Department of Health (DOH), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), and the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA).
However, since the issuance of JMC No. 2017-0001, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has been established and many lessons have been learned from the experiences of past global public health crises and from the technologically evolving work settings abroad with health implications, which necessitate an assessment of the program and its implementing guidelines to keep them in step with the current realities and challenges of medical repatriation involving OFs and OFWs.
The party list lawmaker also emphasized that the resurgence in the deployment of OFWs, coupled with the risk of occupational safety and health issues, highlights the necessity for a well-prepared government response to emergency medical repatriations.
“Maganda yung mekanismong nailatag, at nagamit ang IMRAP nang husto noong pandemya. Kaya lang may mga natutunan din tayo sa implementasyon nito at may mga pagbabago na simula 2017 kaya’t kailangan nang suriing muli at repasuhin ang JMC 2017-0001. Una sa lahat, mayroon na tayong DMW. Pangalawa, dahil sa malawak na saklaw ng programa pati ng bilang ng mga ahensyang kabahagi dito, baka kailangang palawigin ang programa upang maisama ang lahat ng klase ng assistance para sa mga repatriated OFWs, kahit hindi kaso ng medical repatriation. These are the things that we want to look into during the inquiry.” said Rep. Marissa “Del Mar” Magsino.
Additionally, Magsino wants to assess the implementation of DOH Department Order No. 2023-0003, which provides guidelines for the establishment of ‘Dedicated Wards for OFWs’ in selected DOH hospitals.
“This program complements IMRAP and should be subject to evaluation and potential improvements. We have been receiving reports that the allocation of dedicated wards for OFWs in tertiary public hospitals is not followed, thus our OFWs are forced to transfer to private hospitals due to unavailability of beds. Accordingly, they are forced to shell out their own money for out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. Kaya’t kailangan natin masuri kung nasusunod yun dedicated wards para sa mga OFWs, lalo na para sa mga sumailalim ng repatriation. Ang kalusugan at kalagayan ng ating mga OFWs ay dapat nating gawing prayoridad, sapagkat sila ay nagsasakripisyo upang matulungan ang kanilang pamilya at ang ekonomiya ng ating bansa. Karapatan nila na makuha ang maayos na pangangalaga at suporta mula sa ating gobyerno sa mga oras na sila ay mayroong problema sa kanilang kalusugan,” said Magsino.
Last February 2023, the OFW Party List together with DMW, DFA, and OWWA helped repatriate a semi-comatose OFW from Bahrain who suffered from stroke and six other OFWs who requested for medical repatriation.
