DFA, OWWA urged to help distressed OFWs

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Manuel Villar Jr asked the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to promptly assist at least 39 overseas Filipino workers who are currently suffering in Kuwait.

The OFWs are reportedly being abused by their employer through non-payment of due salaries and lack of food provisions which forced them to catch monitor lizards (bayawak) in the desert and have them as staple to survive. At the same time, the workers complain of lack of protection in the workplace which has led to injuries. An OFW identified as Richard Maceda was injured when a collapsed truck door fell on his foot.

“Our OFWs are in physical peril. Their families are going hungry and deeply anxious about them. I call on the DFA and OWWA to promptly attend to, and assist them accordingly,” Villar said. Aside from Maceda, the OFWs also include Franklin Abbido, Edgardo Basilio, Eduardo Prieto, Eduardo Canero, Eduardo Camangyan, Joven Hollon, Nemencio Payag, Rowan Dominguez, and Jerry Pineda.

“Not only can we not feed our families back home, but most of us are also getting sick due to these unbearable situations,” one of the OFWs said. “Had we known that this would be our fate abroad, we would not have left the country and our families,” he added.

The migrant workers also suffer from poor accommodation in the factory which is putting their health in jeopardy.

A television program focusing on OFWs has sought the assistance of the senator on the case. In a recent letter to Villar, the affected OFWs said, “We are witnesses to the thousands of OFWs helped by your office, and we hope that you can also extend help to these OFWs who are victims of their employer.”

Harsh conditions faced by OFWs earlier pushed Villar to actively press for the application of the “no-fault insurance system” for OFWs, a form of indemnity plan in which any-one injured in an accident or misfortune receives direct payment from the company that has insured them, eliminating the need for victims to establish another’s liability or fault through a civil case. –Christina Mendez, Philippine Star