Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., Marcos A.S. Punsalang addresses the Filipino community and provides an overview of the Philippine   Embassy’s GAD project and the objectives of the seminar.

Resource Person, Atty. Viviana Moya, explains the procedural and documentary requirements for migrants in Chile based on the New Chilean Migration Law.

Embassy personnel and Atty. Moya pose with the Filipino attendees after the successful seminar.

(Santiago, 22 September 2018) – Under the ambit of the Philippine Embassy’s Gender and Development (GAD) initiatives, the Embassy organized a Seminar on the New Chilean Migration Law Affecting OFWs with Pointers on Women Empowerment at the OTIC Convention Center in Providencia, Santiago. More than 150 Filipino nationals, majority of them female household service workers (HSWs), attended the successful event.

Chile is now home to approximately 760 Filipinos—93% of them women and most of them working in Chilean households. This deployment profile makes them highly vulnerable to abuses by employers and/or agencies owing to the workers’ lack of awareness about migration and labor laws. The Philippine Embassy organized the recent GAD seminar primarily to address these challenges.

In his opening remarks, Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., Marcos A.S. Punsalang outlined the seminar’s objectives: 1) to make Filipino workers aware of new migration and labor developments under the new Piñera administration; 2) to empower them and lessen their vulnerabilities; and, 3) to uphold their rights and safeguard their welfare while in Chile.

Atty. Viviana Moya Cañales of the Victim Support Project of the Chilean Ministry of Interior and who works closely with SERNAM (Women’s National Agency), the Crime and Victim Support Center in La Cisterna and other NGOs, served as resource person during the afternoon. Atty. Moya is known for being an advocate of women’s rights and gender equality, and also served as the Embassy’s resource person and adviser on women empowerment issues and combating sexual harassment in the past.

Consul Dennis Briones and Embassy personnel facilitated a candid 40-minute long Q&A portion about labor and migration issues following Atty. Moya’s presentation.

The Philippine Embassy has more GAD projects planned for the year, including a sportsfest for OFWs and a publication of a booklet on labor and immigration issues in Chile. END