In response to statements of Senator Raffy Tulfo that applicants staying in poor accommodations provided by the private recruitment agencies (PRAs) the private recruitment agencies deploying Household Service Workers will hold a General Meeting this week to address current this situation.
The Coalition of Licensed Agencies Deploying Services (CLADS) have scheduled an Urgent General Meeting on Thursday. March 20, 2025 at Crowne Plaza Hotel with resource speaker DMW Undersecretary y Bernard Olalia to discuss the issue of accommodations for HSWs applicants provided by their respective agencies and additional ways to improve these facilities.
The urgent General Meeting was triggered by statements from Senator Raffy Tulfo, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Migrant Workers who made surprised inspections of the accommodation of several agencies on the Metro Manila area.
According to Senator Tulfo’s findings many of the inspected places the applicants were living in small rooms, lacked proper ventilation, poor sanitary facilities, not provided with drinking water dispensers, lacking tables and inadequate electric fans.
Under DMW Circular No. 30, Series of 2020 private recruitment agencies deploying Household Service Workers provide with adequate provisions such as beds, blankets, drinking water, toilet facilities and other amenities to ensure their decent living conditions.
Applicants for HSWs positions are housed in accommodations facilities while their documents for travel documents are being processed at the DMW and OWWA and at the same time the HSWs take NC II Courses at TESDA for Domestic Helpers were they are taught housekeeping chores like cooking, use of modern kitchen and household machines like oven, laundry, vacuum cleaners and household items.
The applicants also study basic language courses in Arabic, culture and other skills that prepare them for their jobs in the Middle East or other countries in the world.
PRAs provide the accommodation facilities for applicants who are normally sourced from the provinces usually from Luzon , Visayas and Mindanao where many PRAs have set up their own branches to recruit aspiring young women to become HSWs in order to help their families.
The HSWs staying at accommodations receive food, travel allowance and load for their cellphones while waiting for the approval of visas or work permits.
According to migrant expert Emmanuel Geslani the yearly deployment of new hires for HSWs reaches Two Hundred Thousand (200,000) 2022-2024 annually lower than the pre-pandemic figure of Four Hundred Thousand (400,000 ) between 2016-2019.
