ONE of the biggest overseas Filipino organizations in Hong Kong on Monday urged Philippine embassies and consulates worldwide to follow the lead of the Philippine mission in Singapore which last week suspended the implementation of a controversial memorandum requiring foreign employers to pay $8,000 in fees for directly hiring OFWs.

"Hong Kong consul general Al Vicente should drop the nonsense that they are mere implementors of policies coming from Manila. We dare him to defy POEA’s Memorandum Order No. 4," said Dolores Balladares, chair of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil), as news spread that the Philippine embassy in Singapore announced on Jan. 30 that it will "hold in abeyance" the implementation of the new rule on the direct hiring of OFWs.

Hong Kong hosts over 130,000 OFWs, according to the island’s central census office.

Balladares said OFWs in Hong Kong are dismayed that the consulate-general there has rejected pleas for a reprieve from the implementation of the new rule.

"To our dismay and disappointment, the Filipino diplomats in Hong Kong were among the first to carry out the provisions of the circular," she said.

Balladares advised diplomats to go "even beyond mere suspension" of the implementation of the controversial order.

"They should defy DOLE and POEA until (the two agencies) scrap the new rule", she said. – Anthony Ian Cruz