the POEA can more effectively perform this and genuinely crack down on abusive recruitment agencies and their practices that, from the very start of the migration cycle, place many hundreds of thousands of Filipinos into difficult and vulnerable situations er/{::rv yeal'. The recent reorientation of the POEA according to AO 247 also threatens to nlake the siiuation even worse. Standard labor contract. Well-desigrted and legally sound POEA standard labor contracts go far in formalizing the wages, benefits, working conditions, rest days and other entitlements of migrants. The Philippine government ostensibly prescribes minimum wages at least of the levels in the Philippines or receiving country (whichever is higher), effectively free food and accommodation as well as transportation to and liom the worksite, and requiring just causes for termination. However power imbalances - between workers and employers - can undermine the potential effectiveness ofstandard contracts. There is a zero-sum aspect to a contract'where the gain of any individual migrant is often at the expense of the employer and vice versa: for instance, high salaries for a worker increase employer costs and reduce their profits; days-offfor workers reduce time at work and their contribution to production. Employers then have strong incentive to ensure that contracts are as biased in their favour as possible. This effect is even magnified the greater the number of Filipino migrants going to one particular country or with bulk employeis (where employers want to maximize their advantages wholesale). This impasse is regrettably often resolved to the disadvantage of Filipino migrants especially absent Philippine government support for asserting agreed upon labor standards. The pressures of the government's cheap labor export policy can also manifest to the detriment of migrant workers. Potential benefits from standard contracts are also negated in practiee and effectively replaced by unjust, one-sided, and unequal employment contracts in host countries, with the complicity or even active concurrence of the Philippine government. The concept of a standard labor contract is sound but it is a system that is contravened in practice. The POEA contract does not yet universally ensure security of tenure nor just and humane conditions of work. POEA has a tendency to concede to conditions of host countries, recruitment agencies and employers on live-in arrangements and other employnent provisions that are detrimental to OFWs and make them more lulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Employers can terminate contracts arbitrarily and work permits are immediately cancelled. PEOS/PDOS orientation seminars for migrants. Migrants informed of their rights as well as of the obligations of states under national and international law are going to be in a better position to begin to assert their rights, even as the actual real:zation would still further depend on other practicai and institutional factors in the specific context of migrant workers especially in their destination countries. The PEOS with local government units and the mandatory PDOS for Filipino migrants before leaving are potentially important venues for giving migrants and their families vital information. The 49