Balik-manggagawa overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will soon be exempted from the overseas employment certificate or OEC requirement.

Department  of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III announced a group of OFWs will be the first to try the no OEC policy for balik-manggagawa starting September 15, 2016.

The signed Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Governing Board Resolution No. 12, Series of 2016 will waive the OFWs OEC requirement if they are (1) returning to the same employer and job site and listed in the POEA’s database of OFWs or (2) hired through POEA’s Government Placement Branch.

An OFW balik-manggagawa shall register at bmonline.ph and encode personal and employment details before their departure date to validate if they are exempted from obtaining OEC. The OFWs updated profile will be forwarded to the Bureau of Immigration to serve as basis for clearance to exit the country without payment of processing fees.

For OFWs who will go to the airport failing to register first to the BM Online System will be referred by the Bureau of Immigration to the POEA’s Labor Assistance Counter (LAC) for evaluation and to determine if the worker may be cleared for departure or needs to further complete their travel documents.

The resolution is issued following the order of President Duterte to streamline processes in the deployment of OFWs, to afford them facility and ease in transaction before government offices. POEA is already implementing Balik-Manggagawa Online Processing System which has eliminated the long lines at its offices but still needs to improve the system for OFWs who are returning to the same employer and job site.