Villanueva: OFW remittances dipped by 1.4% in first 9 months of 2020 amid COVID-19

Despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, the remittances of overseas Filipino workers decreased by only 1.4% from January to September 2020 compared to its level in the same period last year, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Wednesday.

The OFW remittances for the first nine months of the year slightly dipped to $21.885 billion from last year's $22.187 billion, according to Senator Joel Villanueva who sponsored the P33.3 billion budget of DOLE in 2021 at the Senate plenary.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon asked the department where this "not significant" decrease could be attributed to.

Conferring with DOLE officials in the session hall, Villanueva said there are currently 1.3 million OFWs deployed worldwide, of whom over 1.1 million are land-based while more than 293,000 are sea-based.

Last year, more than two million OFWs were deployed, he said.

Senator Cynthia Villar surmised that the nature of the jobs of migrant Filipinos is also a factor why many were able to retain employment.

"Many of our overseas Filipino workers are in the health industry, so they are not going back here because they are much needed there and at the same time I think the sea-based were not affected in the end because na-realize ng mga nag-o-operate ng cruise ship, they have to have the staff also to maintain the cruise ship while it's not doing the trips," she said.

Senate Finance Committee chairperson Sonny Angara said OFW remittances would likely pick up in 2021 but may still be below the total $33 billion reached in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

More than 312,000 repatriated OFWs have been assisted by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), according to Villanueva.

The OWWA trust fund amounts to P19.7 billion in January and was at P18.7 billion as of September, Villanueva said. 

The senators commended that OWWA for being able to prudently manage the trust fund this year despite its earlier forecast that the fund could go down to just P1 billion by the end of 2021. -NB, GMA News