JEDDAH, 14 July 2003 — After weeks of waiting for someone to help take them home, 13 Filipino fishermen who have been stranded in Jeddah are expected to reunite soon with their families, thanks to Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

The opposition lawmaker solved the problem with just one call to the Philippine Airlines (PAL) office in Riyadh after learning of the fishermen’s plight during his visit to the Kingdom last week.

Joe Paduga, chairman of the Multipurpose Transport Group which had been helping distressed OFWs, explained the case of the fishermen during Lacson’s dialogue with members of the community in Jeddah.

The fishermen later told Arab News that they were informed by personnel of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) that they could leave as soon as their necessary release papers are ready.

The fishermen are Romeo Gernaldo, Esmeraldo Betinol Jr., Victorino Serna, David Neturada, Rex Omandam, Marlou Dano, Ruperto Fuentes Jr., Elias Pillora Jr., Wilfredo Calvo, Severino Garay Jr., Reynaldo Cabesas, Cayo Benitez and Celedonio Buday.

All 13 of them are professional seamen with seaman’s passbook (a license issued by the Philippine government) and employed by Al-Sayaad Establishment.

Because they have received neither salary nor benefits from their employer since they started working more than four months ago, they left their employer to seek help from the Philippine Consulate.

According to the fishermen, they have been relying on food and other basic needs provided by fellow Overseas Filipino Workers through Paduga’s group and the umbrella organization Alyansa.

Meanwhile, the Kasapi Congress headed by Gil Manese wrote Lacson to inform him that the tickets being prepared by the PAL office in Riyadh was good only for Riyadh to Manila.

Manese asked if Lacson’s office could also to “make an arrangement with PAL, if possible, for their connecting flight via Saudia Airlines from Jeddah to Riyadh in order to avoid some problems in transporting them from Jeddah to Riyadh.”

There have been no word so far from Lacson’s office.

The case of the 13 fishermen was the second to be taken up by Lacson, considered the hottest aspirant for the Philippine presidency in the May 2004 national election.

In his trip to the Kingdom, with Representatives Butz Aquino of Makati and Didagen Dilangalen of Cotabato accompanying him, Lacson brought with him a check of two million pesos for the “Barya Mo, Buhay Ko” (BMBK), a movement organized by OFWs and the POLO in Riyadh to help distressed or stranded Filipino workers in the entire Kingdom.

The amount was part of the five million pesos Lacson promised at the launch of the BMBK when he and several other legislators came to Riyadh in March last year to conduct a public hearing on the overseas absentee voting bill.

Lacson charged the amount to his “pork barrel” allocation, a fund which allows senators and congressmen in the Philippines to tap to finance their per projects. He said the balance of 3 million pesos would come as soon as the Department of Budget and Management releases it.

Lacson had been criticized in Manila for his “heavy” use of the pork barrel because of his repeated call to abolish the fund.

During the dialogue in Jeddah last week, he said he wanted the fund abolished to reduce the government’s budget deficit, which had jumped to more than 200 million pesos last year. Moreover, he said, the fund had become a source of corruption.

“Many projects funded with pork barrel are poorly done because less than 50 percent of the money go into it. The rest are pocketed by contractors and officials who are supposed to safeguard it,” he said.

Asked why he himself used the fund that he had condemned, he said he did so but he makes sure that not a centavo would be stolen. Lacson was the only Philippine lawmaker who had filed corruption charges against public workers and local officials who dipped their hands in projects funded by his pork barrel in Laguna province.

As to his donation to the Barya Mo, Buhay Ko fund, Lacson said it was a worthwhile project that needed all the support possible.

“I’m just putting the people’s money to where it’s really needed,” he said.

Lacson then made clear that his donation to the BMBK was for every qualified OFW all over the Kingdom, not just for those in Riyadh.

“All you need to do is to communicate with the POLO and BMBK in Riyadh in case there are distressed OFWs here who could be supported by the fund,” he told community leaders in Jeddah during the dialogue.

To ensure that the fund would not be squandered, the BMBK and POLO had signed an undertaking that requires strict screening of those who wish to avail themselves of the fund. The BMBK has prepared guidelines on how OFWs could avail themselves of the fund.