MANILA – Incoming Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople wants to come up with a joint agreement with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to prevent an overlap in authority.

Ople said she had talks with incoming Labor chief Bienvenido Laguesma to craft a joint department order that would lay clear which department has jurisdiction when OFW and labor concerns intersect.

"Kanino kukuha ng order, kasi doon nagkaproblema. Sino ba susundin namin? ’Yun aayusin namin ’yon," she told ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo on Saturday.

• Next DOLE chief Laguesma vows to be receptive to different labor policies
• Ople told to take care of children of OFWs, returning migrant workers

In April, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and DOLE clashed on the deployment of Filipino workers to Saudi Arabia, creating confusion among workers.

Outgoing DMW Secretary Abdullah Mama-o, at the time, insisted that he had already lifted the ban on the deployment, but DOLE chief Silvestre Bello said the newly created agency still has no power to remove the ban.

• Dept of Migrant Workers insists on power to lift ban on new hires to Saudi Arabia
• Deployment sa Saudi pinatutuloy ng DMW; DOLE kumontra

President Rodrigo Duterte in December 2021 approved the creation of DMW, a department dedicated solely to the welfare of migrant workers and Filipinos abroad.

—TeleRadyo, June 25, 2022