Section 24Sec./Art. 24

Legal Assistant for Migrant Workers Affairs. - There is hereby created the position of Legal Assistant for Migrant Workers Affairs under the Department of Foreign Affairs who shall be primarily responsible for the provision and overall coordination of all legal assistance services to be provided to Filipino migrant workers as well as overseas Filipinos in distress. He shall have the rank, salary and privileges equal to that of an undersecretary of said Department.

The said Legal Assistant for Migrant Workers Affairs, shall be appointed by the President and must be of proven competence in the field of law with at least ten (10) years of experience as a legal practitioner and must not have been a candidate to an elective office in the last local or national elections.

Among the functions and responsibilities of the aforesaid Legal Assistant are:

a. To issue the guidelines, procedures and criteria for the provision of legal assistance services to Filipino migrant workers;

b. To establish close linkages with the Department of Labor and Employment, the POEA, the OWWA and other government agencies concerned, as well as with non-governmental organizations assisting migrant workers, to ensure effective coordination and cooperation in the provision of legal assistance to migrant workers;

c. To tap the assistance of reputable law firms and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and other bar associations to complement the government's efforts to provide legal assistance to our migrant workers;

d. To administer the legal assistance fund for migrant workers established under Section 25 hereof and to authorize disbursements therefrom in accordance with the purposes for which the fund was set up; and

e. To keep and maintain the information system as provided in Section 20.

The Legal Assistant for Migrant Workers Affairs shall have the authority to hire private lawyers, domestic or foreign, in order to assist him in the effective discharge of the above functions.