MANILA, 5 May 2006 — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is set to discuss three O's — Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), oil and the country’s application for a seat in the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) — on her visit to Saudi Arabia next week, Malacañang said yesterday.
Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye told a national television news program that Malacañang hopes the May 7 to 10 state visit would boost bilateral ties between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia.
Arroyo is scheduled to meet with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to seek a steady and affordable oil supply for the Philippines in view of spiraling world market oil prices.
Bunye said Arroyo will also seek better protection of Filipino workers in the Kingdom, the second biggest employer of OFWs, next to the United States. Arroyo will also ask Saudi leaders to consider favorably the application of the Philippines for a seat in the OIC as “observer.”
Joining the president are Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Trade Secretary Peter Favila, Energy Secretary Rafael Lotilla and some businessmen.
Postal Bank president Rolando Macasaet will also be joining her, though not as an official member of her entourage.
Macasaet was the proponent of the conversion of the Philippine Postal and Savings Bank (PPSB) into a bank for OFWs with a capital infusion from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
In preparation for the visit, OFWs worldwide have initiated a signature campaign on a petition to be presented during the president’s visit to Jeddah.
The petition states that “OFWs have long acknowledged the need for a bank that specifically caters to OFWs’ needs.”
However, the OFWs said that “at no time during the preparatory period to this press release (on the bank) did (Labor) Secretary Santo Tomas or the office of the president of the Philippines extend an invitation to the people who own the funds that they have so generously offered to infuse into the PPSB, to become involved in the decision-making: the OFWs.”
“OFWs are of the opinion that OWWA funds should be administered by representatives of the OFW organizations. Movement of OWWA funds should not be at the whim of the administration’s Cabinet,” the petition read.
The petition also said the proposed bank should be fully owned by the OFWs and the projected profits should be owned by the bank’s owners or members.
"We strongly protest this newest move to exclude the opinion of overseas Filipinos in the disposition of OWWA funds. We urge the administration and Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas to give the country’s “modern-day heroes” long overdue respect by giving them the choice, and a voice in the formation, of their own bank which will bear a name uniquely their own: OFWBANK,” they said.
