A senator yesterday said she plans to file a Senate resolution to investigate the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to find out how it spends the funds contributed by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) now amounting to $11.4 billion.
Sen. Loren Legarda made the statement at the Usapang OFW a forum held over radio station dzMM and ABS-CBN television and which was attended by OFWs, including truck drivers who had returned from the Middle East after losing their jobs there.
Legarda said aside from filing the resolution, she would start this week to question OWWA officials to account for the OFW funds which come from the agency’s mandated contributions of $25 from each OFW who leaves for abroad.
Presently, there are about 8-10 million Filipino workers working in various countries abroad.
During the forum, an OFW complained that the overseas workers do not benefit from their contributions to OWWA. He said OFWs do not have any control nor say on how “their money” kept in the fund is to be spent.
He also said the OFWs are not even represented in the OWWA board.
Legarda said she had verified this when in a recent trip to Malaysia, she personally paid out of her own pocket for the air fare of 12 Filipino women who wanted to return home after they were forced by their recruiter to go into prostitution.
She said many OFWs in the Middle East and from other parts of the world have asked her office for help on their problems, mostly about finances.
“This is the work of the OWWA, but my office had no recourse but to help the OFWs, coordinating with the other offices like the Department of Labor and Employment and the foreign office, to extend help to these OFWs in trouble,” Legarda said.
She said it was time for the OWWA to be made to account for the OFW fund, including the interests from deposits and investments.
The senator said the OWWA should provide seed capital to returning OFWs, for them to use for livelihood that they could start right after coming from their jobs abroad.
Legarda said she has a program that is aimed at helping OFWs be reintegrated into local society once they return from abroad.
On the matter of how to best make use of the OFWs’ remittances, she said she would look into the status of the Overseas Investments Act, which could be used to provide funds for overseas workers to engage in entrepreneurial activities when they return from abroad.
Legarda said OFWs in Hong Kong who have been excluded from the Minimum Wage Law there should seek the help of the Philippine consulate in negotiating with the Hong Kong government for higher wages. –Daily Tribune
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