MALACAÑANG

Manila

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

PROCLAMATION NO.

443

DECLARING THE PERIOD FROM JULY 1994 TO JULY 1995, AS

NATIONAL ANTI-ILLEGAL RECRUITMENT CONSCIOUSNESS YEAR

WHEREAS, overseas work continues to be a livelihood alternative for unemployed Filipinos, such that at least 469,000 of them leave the country annually and the deployment rate is projected to grow at 10 percent yearly;

WHEREAS, overseas recruitment is a profitable industry with annual revenues estimated at $700 million;

WHEREAS, for profit’s sake, unscrupulous entities are engaged in illegal recruitment activities in total disregard of business ethics, labor laws, and human rights;

WHEREAS, for lack of information, thousands of Filipinos hoping for overseas jobs are defrauded of money and property by illegal recruiters;

WHEREAS, media are rife with accounts of the pitiful conditions of those who have been victimized by illegal recruiters;

WHEREAS, illegal recruiters are continuously expanding their scope of operations, covering an increasing number of employment sectors and recruiting workers even from the country’s hinterlands;

WHEREAS, noting that, with at least 2.4 percent of the country’s Gross National Product derived from the labors of OCWs, it is the government’s duty to protect this work sector;

WHEREAS, there is a need to enhance the people’s awareness and knowledge of practices linked to illegal recruitment;

WHEREAS, a concerted effort among the government, church, non-governmental organizations, and the business sector is indispensable to the success of a campaign against illegal recruitment;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FIDEL V. RAMOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby declare the period from July 1994 to July 1995 as National Anti-Illegal Recruitment Consciousness Year.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Republic of the Philippines to be affixed.

Done in the City of Manila, this 11

^th

day of August, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and ninety four.

(Sgd.)

FIDEL V. RAMOS

By the President:

(Sgd.) TEOFISTO T. GUINGONA, JR.