OWWA settling obligations to OFW service providers –Cacdac

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) is now addressing its obligations to service providers catering to the needs of returning OFWs, administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said Sunday.

In an interview on Super Radyo dzBB, Cacdac clarified OWWA's earlier call for funds to cover for transportation, food, and accommodation services for pandemic-hit OFWs.

"We need to make a distinction dun sa kakulangan ng funds na inanunsyo namin noon. Iyon po ay para dun sa food, transport, and hotel quarantine services para sa mga providers," he said.

According to Cacdac, the lack of funds has been addressed with the P3.3-billion replenishment money.

"Yun naman, nagpapasalamat tayo sa Pangulo at sa Department of Budget and Management kasi nagkaroon tayon ng P3.3 billion last August" (We thank the President and the DBM for the replenishment in August), he pointed out.

"And, on October 7, Thursday,  Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III wrote to DBM that OWWA needs funds for the last quarter amounting to P4.2B,  as part of the P7.5B that we requested for the second half of 2021.

We are expecting that the fund will be replenished so we can honor our obligations for our service providers for the final quarter of 2021.

"Maitawid lang ang final quarter kasi pagpasok na ng fiscal year 2022, nandidiyan na P11.2 B naman ang nakalaang pondo sa ilalim ng national budget for 2022.

(We hope that the replenishment fund would tide us over the last quarter of the year. And for the Fiscal Year 2022, we bank on the approval of our P11.2-B proposed budget. —LBG, GMA News