Ms. Celeste M. Valderrama, Director, International Labor Affairs Bureau, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippines, discusses the importance of ILS and ILS reporting for Philippines’ overseas workers (December, 2011).

“I might say that the fact that we have a lot of Filipinos working overseas emphasizes or puts emphasis to our mandate on overseas employment but not only in terms of programs that we are providing them but also the host country policy. So at the level of policy we are very much aware that it is through multilateral cooperation, bilateral cooperation that we can succeed in bringing about improvements in the conditions of our workers in bringing about more employment opportunities for them in the fields that they have chosen. In so many ways ILO is part of all this cooperation program, for most of which are the international labor standards. When a country, the host country has ratified this Convention, for example the migrant workers’ Convention, then we are sure that they will be, that they will care for our workers as much as we care for them. So they also of course provide a lot of technical support on our work concerning migrant workers and all the other international labour standards.”

Special thanks go to the Honorable Secretary of Labor and Employment of the Philippines, and the Director and staff of the International Labor Affairs Bureau of the Department of Labor of the Philippines for their generous cooperation in the production of this video.