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Millions for gov’t as OFWs suffer

BAGUIO CITY (Oct. 6) — Migrante-Cordillera declared that the Philippine earns millions of pesos from overseas Filipino workers’ (OFW’s) contributions and remittances but government agencies mandated to take care of OFW concerns continue to neglect them.

Migrante Spokesperson Flora Belinan in an interview disclosed that the government earns over P25 million daily from passport, Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA)and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) contributions and processing fees of overseas Filipino workers (OFW). She added that as of January 1 to July 3 this year OFW remittances was pegged at $P5.8 billion, $1 billion higher than last year.

Belinan said that out of the placement fees of OFWs, P8,765 goes to government agencies. She explained that this is the amount that placement agencies should pay the government.

“If we multiply the processing fees to the 3,000 OFWs leaving the country daily, the government earns P26.3 million a day to be exact,” she said.

Passport processing for Hong Kong would cost P500. Passport processing requires birth certificate at P125, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) clearance at P115 and marriage contract at P125 (for married applicants). POEA processing fee costs $100, which is P5,600 at the current dollar–peso exchange rate.

Belinan added that OFWs also pay the $25 OWWA contribution and P900 OWWA Medicare premium mandated by the new OWWA omnibus policies. She said that the OWWA contribution is only good for a two-year contract. She explained that OFWs with six-month contracts, like the seafarers and those with three-year contracts pay twice the OWWA contributions.

Moreover, Belinan said that while government earns millions from processing fees, thousands of OFWs suffer not only from their employers but also from government neglect. She cited the recent murder of a Filipina in Spain and the thousands of stranded OFWs in the Middle East and Malaysia. She also mentioned the unfair treatment of host countries to OFWs.

According to Migrante-International March 2005 data, there are 3,431 jailed with 24 facing death row in the Middle East. The same reports showed that 300 OFWs are stranded in Jeddah alone.

“Despite the alarming number of OFWs abused and killed abroad, the Arroyo administration still intensifies its labor export program,” she stressed.

According to Allan Ignacio of OWWA’s repatriation team, 127 OFWs were killed at work; 1,886 distressed OFWs returned to the country; and 42 came home mentally ill from January to March this year.

OWWA-National office records showed that as of March this year there were 6,933 OFWs jailed, maltreated and raped or sexually abused. OWWA also documented 683 distressed; 133 mentally and physically ill; 120 dead; and 257 unpaid OFWs during the same period.

Belinan said that in the Cordillera, Migrante handled 34 cases, which included illegal recruitment, maltreatment, unpaid wages and assistance in benefit claims. She said that these OFWs did not seek the help of OWWA and POEA.

“I believe there are more cases in the region if we are to count those reported to OWWA and POEA and those that are not reported,” she said.

Belinan reiterated that the government should create jobs here instead of sending Filipinos overseas to end all the inflicted abuses and killings of OFWs abroad. # Kim Quitasol for NORDIS

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