Jucca Noreen S.

Sales Critique of News Article (January)

US Ban On Work Visas Due to Remarks of Labor Attaché by Dona Z. Pazzibugan. Published by
Philippine Daily Inquirer, January 24, 2019, Philippines.
In this news article, the parties are the government of the Philippines and the Government
of the United States of America. It was reported that there has been a one-year ban in the
issuance of H-2a and H-2B or the temporary work visas to Filipinos by the United States. This
issue started from a complain of the labor attaché of the Philippines in the United States that
some holders of the temporary work and students visas were being taken advantage of by
employers, prompting a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigation.
Human trafficking and of visa holders overstaying were seen as one of the major reasons
for the ban in issuance of visas from January 29, 2019 to January 18, 2020. The DHS also stated
that the Department is also concerned for the high volume of human trafficking victims form the
Philippines. On the other hand, the Philippine government through the Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA) said that the Philippines is open to the possibility of working with the United
States in addressing theses issues, as it has previously done so with similar concerns involving
the Filipino community there.
From the news article in relation to the concepts of Public International Law, firstly, in
cases of infractions, responsibility is usually collective in the sense that it attaches directly to the
Sate and not to its nationals. Next, from the sanctions of Public International Law, to which
sanction pertains to the compulsive force of reciprocal advantage and fear of retaliation, the
nationals of the state must obey the laws of the foreign country to project an agreeable public
image in order to maintain the goodwill and favorable regard of the rest of the family of nations.
Lastly, in relation to the functions of Public International Law, it was shown in this article it
provide for the orderly management of the relations of states on the basis of substantive rules
they have agreed to observe as members of the international community and to encourage and
ensure greater international cooperation, in the solution of certain common problems of political,
economic, cultural or humanitarian character.
From the first concept, as told by the news article, it was the statement of the labor
attaché that triggered the DHS to conduct investigation and to disallow the issuance of visas to
Filipinos for one year. The effect of such statement of labor attaché had a collective impact to all
Filipinos who are applying for a visa. It affected all the Filipino community especially those who
want to be employed or work in the US because these working visas shall not be issued to
Filipinos for a period of one year. Although, some may not consider this as an infraction from a
foreign country because its main reason was to protect those victims of human trafficking, as a
consequence there are also many people who will be delayed to get an employment in the US.
Secondly, this one-year ban is a sanction to the Filipinos who are overstaying in the
United States. If only there has been no Filipino who is not following the immigration laws of
the United States, the Philippine government could have avoided the imposition of this sanction
to the country or the one-year ban of visas to Filipinos. Lastly, it has been shown that the one-
year ban is a quite long period, it must be acknowledged that the purpose of this declaration is
for the protection of the victims of human trafficking. This is because human trafficking is a
crime against persons and high volume of its victims are Filipinos. It was evident that they
cooperated for the solution of a certain problem between the countries whether it may be
political, economic or cultural.
In this article, Labor Attache was mentioned, a Labor Attache is a person officially
assigned to the staff of a diplomatic mission to serve in a particular capacity.
In my point of view, the one-year ban of issuing visas has a good and bad effect. One the
one side, as a good effect, we can trust the government of the two States to cure and make a
remedy against the human trafficking issue and help its victims. As the government of the United
States disallow the visas, they could somehow lessen the to be victims of human trafficking in
the US. Moreover, they could investigate and find out who are those people that are overstaying
in their country before allowing Filipinos to work again in their territory. As far as the
Philippines and the US help each other to maintain their relationship and follow the laws of each
country, this would be an example to the international community in fixing problems through
peaceful obedience.
On the other hand, one-year period is quite long to wait for Filipino employees and
workers to get their working visas to US. This delay can also be a root of another problem of the
Filipinos and the Philippine government. This would necessarily result to the increasing number
of unemployment in the country. Thus, this problem between the Philippines and the United
States can be both beneficial and unhelpful but as long as both countries do their responsibility
and respect the laws of each other, these problems can always be solved.
Works Cited

Pazzibugan, D. Z. (2019, January 24). Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved from

https://globalnation.inquirer.net/172723/us-ban-on-work-visas-due-to-remarks-of-labor-
attache-
locsin?fbclid=IwAR2JX2Xc5y3dKJ5dp1xEfAnYtQqXsMOSAjydUs81QNDgLbcGUqsGBzO4rBg