President Rodrigo Duterte vowed on Friday to push for the creation of the Department of Overseas Filipino Workers.

Duterte made the promise during the "Araw ng Pasasalamant (Thanksgiving Day)" for OFWs in Camp Aguinaldo.

"I have the permission from Secretary (Silvestre) Bello (III) that we have lots of problem. You already need one department. So you will have a Department of OFW only for you," he said.

Previously, Bello said he was not in favor to have a Department of OFW because it was not the policy of the government to encourage the deployment of more OFWs.

Duterte said the government would also deploy police attaches to help OFWs who would encounter problem.

"The police attache will connect you here in the Philippines whatever your problem is. And they will be trained to help you in legal matters of how to do it in the meantime that you are not here to solve the problem," Duterte said.

"But just the same, there will be the same treatment for all of you. You'll have the department, own hospital, then you will have a police attache. I may place women perhaps," he added.

Congress has to pass a law creating the Department of OFW.

In 2018, the Philippine Statistics Authority said there were 2.299 million OFWs. Celerina Monte/DMS