Short answer. Yes. Article 17 creates the Overseas Employment Development Board specifically to run a systematic program for overseas employment of Filipino workers in excess of domestic needs, and to protect their rights to fair and equitable employment practices. Promoting overseas jobs and protecting workers abroad are both part of its mandate.
What the law says
An Overseas Employment Development Board is hereby created to undertake, in cooperation with relevant entities and agencies, a systematic program for overseas employment of Filipino workers in excess of domestic needs and to protect their rights to fair and equitable employment practices.
Labor Code, Article 17 — Overseas Employment Development Board. Read the full provision →
What the law says
To act as secretariat for the Board of Trustees of the Welfare and Training Fund for Overseas Workers.
Labor Code, Article 17 — Overseas Employment Development Board. Read the full provision →
A body created with this exact dual mandate
Article 17 establishes the body you are asking about in explicit terms. An Overseas Employment Development Board is hereby created to undertake, in cooperation with relevant entities and agencies, a systematic program for overseas employment of Filipino workers in excess of domestic needs and to protect their rights to fair and equitable employment practices. The article ties promotion and protection together as one mandate, not two separate, optional goals — the Board exists to grow overseas employment opportunities and to safeguard the workers who take them.
It works with other agencies, not alone
The statute specifies that the Board carries out its program in cooperation with relevant entities and agencies. It is not meant to operate in isolation from the rest of government, and its systematic program for overseas employment is designed as a coordinated effort rather than a single office acting entirely on its own. This cooperative structure is built into the mandate itself, not left to informal arrangement.
Protecting workers ties into a dedicated welfare fund
The protective side of the mandate connects to a specific mechanism named in the same article: to act as secretariat for the Board of Trustees of the Welfare and Training Fund for Overseas Workers. By serving as secretariat for that fund's board of trustees, the Board's role in protecting workers is not just aspirational language — it is linked to an actual fund structure meant to support the welfare and training needs of Filipinos working overseas.
What this means if you are considering overseas work
If you are researching whether any government body specifically exists to look after Filipino workers going abroad, Article 17 confirms that one was created with exactly that combined purpose — expanding overseas job opportunities while also working to secure fair treatment and support for the workers who take them. The article does not itself spell out how to access the fund or file a complaint; those specific procedures would depend on rules this article does not set out.