RIYADH, 6 June 2005 — Filipinos in the Kingdom have been asked to support a campaign to scrap the $25 membership fee being imposed by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) on each migrant worker.

According to the Riyadh-based V-Team, an advocacy and community service group advancing the rights and welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers, the Manila-based Philippine Migrants Rights Watch (PMRW) plans to ask a court, Malacanang Palace and Congress to stop the OWWA’s mandatory collection and it needs evidence for the request to prosper.

To help build up the evidence, all that an OFW who has paid the $25 fee need to do is to sign the document being used in the campaign and provide a photocopy of the receipt.

V-Team leaders said the evidence will help the PMWR expose the OWWA’s “blatant lie” that Filipino migrant workers are not paying any membership fee.

“We have to counter the statement of the legal panel of OWWA that they are not collecting these fees from OFWs but from our employers,” said Yanbu-based Ronnie Abeto, a senior officer of Pusong Mamon Task Force (PMTF).

Abeto, who was a founding member of International Coalition on Filipino Voting Rights (ICOFVR), said the campaign in Saudi Arabia aims to gather 100,000 signatures.

Other groups are also collecting signatures from Filipinos elsewhere in the world.

Aside from the V-team, the Kilusang 6713, eLagda, PMTF, Masa.Com and other cause-oriented and crisis intervention groups in the Kingdom are participating in the campaign.

In seeking a halt to the OWWA collections, the PMWR and other advocacy groups said the OWWA collection is not only illegal and unconstitutional but also unfair because it is being forced upon OFWs.

The OWWA was created to provide protection and welfare to OFWs but a report by the Department of Labor early last year said more of the agency’s money were being spent on paying its employees than for workers’ welfare.

Abeto said the signature campaign is already gaining momentum in Yanbu. Those who have access to the Internet have been informed that they can download forms from Filipinosd@yanbu and Filipino_entrepreneur_yanbu. If not, printed forms are available in camps such as Camp 3, Camp 5, Camp 9 and Camp 10 of the Royal Commission, Al-Suwaidi camp, AYTB camp, some hospitals and Sky Freight offices.

He urged Filipinos elsewhere in the Kingdom to sign up and assert their rights.

The PMRW has advised OFWs in Saudi Arabia to coordinate with the nearest Filipino community group in Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Alkhobar, Jubail, Hofuf, Rastanura, Khafji, Buraydah, Qasim, Tabuk, Arar, Al-Jouf, Medina, Makkah, Yenbu, Taif, Baha, Abha, Khamis, Jizan and Najran Districts or contact the action officers and coordinators through the following numbers: 05098-23303, 05022-17271, 05085-76486, 05082-86321, 05080-19866, 05081-50861.

Filled out forms should be returned to PMRW at No. 4, 13th St., New Manila, Quezon City, with telephone +63(2) 7243512, fax +63(2) 7214296, and email: [email protected].