OWWA collects $75,000 daily from OFWs

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration or OWWA collects $75,000 daily from Filipino workers, an official said Thursday. According to OWWA chief Marianito Roque, this amounts to about P3.7 million daily or about P112 million monthly. His remarks came as he defended the collection of $25 from OFWs, saying that those were membership fees which entitles OWWA members for certain benefits like hospitalization, insurance of P200,000, burial assistance of P20,000 plus livelihood training and loan of P50,000 to as high as P200,000. “Roughly we are collecting P1 billion annually," Roque told reporters. Roque stressed there was nothing illegal in the collection of the US$25 membership fee since all these funds collected were being used to fund and assist workers that are in trouble. However, he admitted that in some cases the OWWA had used the funds even for the undocumented OFWs and non-OWWA members, adding that this should be paid by the national government. Currently, he said that the national government still owes OWWA some funds. This, he said, amounts to P155 million, which represents the P100 million emergency repatriation fund put up 10 years ago which has not been replenished by Congress. Various groups, including senators, have called for an investigation into how the OWWA funds - estimated at P8 billion - were being spent. The investigation was sparked by the ongoing evacuation of OFWs from Lebanon which was fanned by the revelation of Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Al Francis Bichara that they were not being given money to finance the evacuation and repatriation of stranded OFWs. Also on Thursday, the Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerants (ECMI) of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said that the OWWA investigation should determine if the collection of the US$25 was legal. Fr. Edwin Corros, executive secretary of the ECMI, aired the call following reports that OWWA funds were used to boost the campaign kitty of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during the May 2004 polls through the Philippine Health Insurance or PhilHealth.] He noted that since two years ago, the CBCP-ECMI and the Philippine Migrant Watch had began questioning how the OWWA and the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) spent the US$25 or P1, 250 membership fee especially in assisting the distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Citing the Migrants Workers Act, Fr. Corros said the P8 billion workers welfare fund should not be invested without the consultations from representatives of the OFWs and with the OWWA board. However, during the time of then President Fidel Ramos, OWWA released P500 million for the Smokey Mountain low-cost housing project, apparently without the consent of the board. Corros also pointed out that the US$25 membership fee was supposed to be shouldered by their foreign employers and not by the OFWs since they are being paid on a per-contract basis. “We are not actually against the collection of the $25. We are only questioning the legalities of the collection because if the policy says that it should be paid by the employer then that should have been paid by the employer and not by the workers," added the priest.-GMANews.TV