Right to travel is not absolute,Lagman rejects Locsin's stand vs deployment ban of health workers

The old man from Albay is on attack mode again.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman has made news again that he is not agreeing to the reasoning of Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin’s stand that it is unconstitutional to impose temporary ban on our health professionals going abroad amid the threat of the novel coronavirus 2019 pandemic the country is facing.

The Albay representative reminded Locsin that the rights to travel and non-impairment of contracts “are not absolute and are subject to restrictions or limitations which the State may enforce in exercise of its police power.”

Albay rep. Edcel Lagman and DFA Teddy Boy Locsin
(photo credit to owner)

Lagman stressed that no less than the 1987 Constitution under Sec. 6 of Art. III on the Bill of Rights provides that “[n]either shall the right to travel be impaired except in the interest of national security, public safety or public health, as may be provided by law.”

“The temporary ban on overseas employment of doctors, nurses and other health care workers imposed by the Governing Board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on April 2, 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic is constitutional,” said Lagman.

Lagman explained that the enforcement of the ban on foreign deployment of migrant workers “has been duly delegated by the legislature under the established standards of national interest or public welfare to the POEA Governing Board.”

He reminded his former colleague that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) “has to be merely consulted but it has no veto power over the decision to terminate or ban foreign employment.”

Earlier, Locsin slammed Department of Labor (DOLE) particularly the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) for the imposition of a temporary ban on overseas employment of medical professionals amid the country’s COVID-19 crisis, saying that it’s against every Filipino’s constitutional right to travel.

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Report from Politiko

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