MANILA, 18 May — Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas yesterday clarified that she was not after the outright removal from office of Overseas Workers Welfare Authority (OWWA) Administrator Wilhelm Soriano.
"What I simply said is that the OWWA has accumulated this many investments in the past. We're not questioning the investments per se but we're questioning whether there are authorizations for these investments," Sto. Tomas explained.
"I don't think there is anybody in government who can take out money and invest it in a private undertaking without an authorization from the board."
Revelations about the OWWA's misuse of the migrant worker's money, including the possible loss of 1.2 billion pesos in failed investments, has sparked calls for Soriano's resignation and the abolition of the agency.
Sto. Tomas said, however, that said she will wait first for the results of an investigation on the status of the OWWA fund by a committee headed by Labor Undersecretary Arturo Brion with representatives from the DOLE's financial service, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the DOLE's internal affairs department.
Sto. Tomas also said the report from the committee, which they expect by next week, would become the basis of her action, if any, against Soriano.
"Depending on what they are going to say, we are going to send this either to the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) or the Ombudsman," Sto. Tomas said.
She also said "there ought to be some fundamental changes in the way OWWA runs its financial management system." Sto. Tomas then suggested that OWWA publish in a local newspaper what OWWA collected the past year and its possible expenses for the coming year.
"What should be remembered is that the OWWA fund is not a government fund but a fund of the workers," she said.
Based on the POEA's deployment statistics, the OWWA fund got an infusion of $8.9 million from January 1 to March 15 this year. That is considering that there are 357,481 prospective overseas workers who left as of March 15 who all paid $25 into the OWWA fund.
Meanwhile, POEA Deputy Administrator Victoria Berciles said they are well on the way to achieving the one million deployment being targeted for this year.
She told Arab News that the revelation of this anomaly in the OWWA fund would not affect the country's overseas employment program. "There is no connection," Berciles said.
Statistics from the POEA's Policies and Programs branch said that daily hires approximate 2,864 daily, including 860 newly hired land-based workers, 1,314 rehired land-based workers, and 2,864 seamen.
Sto. Tomas said that as of the moment, the total deployment has reached 357,481, a 3.4 percent increase from the figures gathered during the same period last year.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also remains the top destination of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), most of whom are service and professional workers.
The Middle East also regained its lofty position as the major destination of OFWs although hiring of land-based workers decreased 0.61 percent compared to the first quarter of 2001. Hiring of sea-based workers increased 3.6 percent during the first three months of the year.
The top five destinations in Asia were the Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Brunei.
In Europe, the United Kingdom showed strength as an emerging market and it, along with Italy and Ireland were primarily responsible for the significant growth in the European market.
