Migrante criticizes MECO on plight of 13 OFWs

An alliance of Filipino migrants on Sunday criticized the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) for allegedly neglecting 13 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) involved in a human-trafficking case against a company in Taiwan. Migrante Taiwan was all the more infuriated when it found that MECO — the de facto Philippine embassy in Taiwan — was more concerned with the retirement benefits of its board members, said the group’s chairperson Dave Chang. “On several occasions, MECO has abandoned its responsibility to provide shelter or any form of assistance to the 13 OFWs who were clearly in need of government support," Chang said in a statement. At present, MECO is in the midst of a scandal for giving its board members P600,000 for each year of service as retirement benefit after only two years of service. Some 13 OFWs filed a case of human trafficking against AV Tech on the grounds of verbal abuse, discrimination, unpaid overtime work, passport confiscation, illegal work, excessive placement fees, and illegal deduction, said Chang. He pointed out that when the OFWs asked MECO to give them shelter while the case is pending, MECO told them that there was “no space" to house them. “What’s [MECO’s use] to us OFWs, when all it does is lie through its teeth, spread misinformation, and grossly abandon its responsibility to attend to our welfare?" Chang alleged in the statement. “Obviously, MECO is becoming more like a money-making mafia than a de facto Philippine embassy in Taiwan," he also alleged in the statement. With the move of the Aquino administration to slash the legal assistance fund for OFWs from P50 million to P27 million, MECO will find stronger grounds not to help OFWs being exploited in Taiwan, Chang claimed. “With the attitude of MECO on OFWs and the recent budget cut, we do not expect the Aquino administration to do anything significant for OFWs. We will continue to resist any and all anti-migrant policies and moves from this administration," he also alleged in the statement. —JE/VS, GMANEws.TV