OWWA seeks additional personnel for its 24/7 help centers

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said it needs additional personnel to man its  24/7 call center operations to address the needs of Filipinos working abroad.

During the deliberations of OWWA's budget at the House of Representatives on Friday, the agency's administrator Patricia Yvonne Caunan also said the help center should be a permanent office.

“Sa 24/7 [operations] center, meron lang po tayong 30 na tao. 29 po dito job order. 24/7 po ang shifting nila. Humingi na po kami ng tulong at suporta sa Department of Budget and Management para humingi ng additional 98 [persons] at gawin na pong konkreto at gawing permanenteng opisina yung 24/7 natin na [operations] center,” she shared.

(In the 24/7 [operations] center, we only have 30 people. 29 of these are job orders. Their shifts are 24/7. We are asking for help and support from the Department of Budget and Management to ask for an additional 98 [persons] and to make our 24/7 [operations] center a more concrete and permanent office.

Caunan shared that the office handled more than 79,000 cases in 2024 and 42,000 so far in 2025.

“With additional budget and prioritization, we can improve our response rate. We expect efficiency, we expect speed in responding to the concerns of our OFWs,” she said.

Meanwhile, the administrator also sought to augment the current P142 million Alagang OWWA fund under the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP), saying it could not cover the operating costs for their OFW lounges.

“Unfortunately, yung nasa NEP na P142 million, kahit isa po di po namin macocontinue at the level of service that we are giving our OFWs,” she shared.

(Unfortunately, the P142 million allotted by the NEP will not help us continue the level of service we are giving our OFWs.)

“It's not enough just to sustain our existing facilities, including the OFW lounges both in Terminals 1 and 3 which serves over 1.5 million passengers," she added.

Caunan also asked for the restoration or augmentation of OWWA’s emergency repatriation fund, stating that it was a standby fund for contingencies.

"Ito po ay hinahanda just in case may mangyari. Looking at the situation globally, marami pong pwedeng mangyari at may nangyayari nga po as we speak,” she said, addressing questions on the fund's non-utilization.

(We are setting aside this fund for contingencies. Looking at the situation globally, there are a lot of things that may happen and some things are already happening as we speak.)

Based on the 2026 NEP, OWWA’s total budget was set at P3.485 billion. —LDF, GMA Integrated News