Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople expressed yesterday her heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to the House of Representatives for passing the department's proposed P15.2 billion budget for 2023.

Representative David "Jayjay" Suarez of Quezon defended the appropriation, which proposes a P3.5 billion budget for the Secretary's Office and the various units and bureaus under its supervision. Meanwhile, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, a DMW-affiliated agency, will receive the remaining P11.7 billion in the department's budget.

"It is an honor to sponsor and defend the budget of the most infant of departments in the government, the Department of Migrant Workers. We often refer to our overseas Filipino workers as our modern-day heroes for the remittances that they send and continue to bring life to our economy. It is only right that we have a department that will truly cater, fight for the rights of our OFWs," Suarez noted in his opening statement.

Ople, who is in New York City as part of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s official delegation, notes that the House's approval of the appropriation is a keystone in establishing the DMW as a full-fledged Cabinet department.

"The HoR's approval of the 2023 budget proposal for the Department of Migrant Workers brings us much closer to the goal of having a fully constituted department. Hopefully, the DMW's budget will also obtain the Senate's approval. This is the best and historic gift of our lawmakers to OFWs this Christmas," Ople said in a message.

The DMW's appropriation for 2023 enables it to provide effective and efficient services to its primary client group, the country's OFWs, while also ensuring a robust regulatory and enforcement regime and sustaining capacity development and migrant worker empowerment.