Councilor Rachel P. Zozobrado on Tuesday urged the City Council to approve on first reading a proposed Safe Migration Ordinance for Davao City, saying the city must protect aspiring overseas workers before they become victims of illegal recruitment and human trafficking.
Delivering her privilege speech during the 28th Regular Session of the City Council, Zozobrado stressed that Davao City can no longer afford to wait until workers are exploited before taking action.
She said the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) had recorded 72 human trafficking-related cases in Davao City as of the end of 2025—the highest in the Davao Region—with many involving women lured by fraudulent overseas job offers.
Zozobrado emphasized that migration should never come at the expense of safety and dignity.
“We call them heroes, and rightly so. Yet heroism should never be the price of survival,” she said.
She described how many migrant workers fall victim to excessive placement fees, contract substitution, passport confiscation, undisclosed debts and, in the worst cases, death abroad.
According to Zozobrado, the country’s current protection system remains largely reactive.
“Our system of protection, for all its sincerity, is largely built to react. Investigations are done only after a complaint. Rescues are made after the abuse. Repatriations are executed after the crisis,” she said.
She argued that illegal recruitment often begins within local communities, making local governments the first line of defense.
“Illegal recruitment does not begin in Riyadh or in Tokyo. It begins at the point of first contact… If the first contact happens in Davao, then the first line of defense must also be Davao,” she said.
The proposed measure, formally titled the Kalinga sa Migranteng Dabawenyo Ordinance of 2026, establishes a comprehensive prevention framework centered on safe migration education, stricter job fair regulations, enhanced disclosure requirements, anti-trafficking safeguards, and coordinated support systems among local and national agencies.
Among its key provisions are the promotion of the “Verify. Report. Protect. Participate.” culture of safe migration, the “Apat Dapat” verification standard for overseas employment, the establishment of a Davao City Safe Migration Desk, annual citywide awareness campaigns, and the creation of Barangay OFW Help Desks.
The measure also promotes the use of digital innovations such as TaraKabayan, Power MIMS, and KalingApp to help identify risks early and provide assistance throughout the migration journey.
Zozobrado said prevention should define Davao City’s approach.
“Strong states prevent crises quietly, not loudly,” she said.
She added that the ordinance’s success would not be measured by headlines but by tragedies that never happen.
“Its success will never trend online because its success will be everything that does not happen: the fee that is never stolen, the contract that is never substituted, the passport that is never confiscated, the minor who is never recruited, the mother who never has to claim her child at the airport cargo bay,” she said.
Zozobrado described prevention as the highest expression of public service and compassion.
“Prevention rarely makes headlines. But it is the highest form of kalinga, of care. And that is what Davao City is all about,” she said.
