MANILA, 17 August 2006 — An advocacy group based in Hong Kong has warned that Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) may yet find themselves paying membership contributions to another agency against their will.

“The Arroyo regime is again planning to introduce another money-making scheme targeting OFWs,” Eman Villanueva, secretary-general of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-HK), said in an e-mail to other OFW advocacy groups worldwide.

The plan was first revealed by SSS Executive Vice President and Chief Actuary Horacio Templo during President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address on June 25.

Said Templo, “The SSS is in serious talks with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and POEA for the mandatory registration of OFWs before their departure for abroad.”

And according to Villanueva, Templo was in Hong Kong just recently trying to sell this “bright idea.”

The target was supposedly to start collecting the mandatory fee next year.

In Manila, SSS President and General Manager Corazon dela Paz said they were only making a recommendation.

“It is not final,” she said, emphasizing that the program, if it would be enforced, “would not be not mandatory but voluntary.”

De la Paz said the proposal stemmed from a study conducted by Templo, which pointed out the advantages accruing OFWs should they become SSS members while they still had earning capability.

“The study shows that those are able to become members, get benefits despite the distance,” De la Paz said.

SSS spokesman Joel Palacios said the idea was still being discussed. “It is still be bandied around,” he said.

But Villanueva said there is nothing “voluntary” with a program if the OFWs have no choice but pay since the collection of such fees would be included in the charges they need to pay for their papers to be processed,” Villanueva said.

He cited the case of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), in which every OFW whose paper is processed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) has to pay a $25 membership fee.

While the aim of the OWWA is to ensure that each OFW is covered by death benefits, among others, OFWs complain that the government's handling of the welfare fund is lamentable.

OFWs Have Everything to Gain

Templo said the purpose was to secure protection for OFWs deployed in various countries all over the world.

About 16,000 OFWs are enrolled in the SSS Flexi-fund program, a tax-exempt savings and pension plan that the fund offers to its members on top of its regular social security program.

Templo said the SSS is working toward forging bilateral social security agreements with countries that employ a substantial number of Filipino workers in addition to its existing agreements with Austria, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Spain, France, Canada and Quebec, Switzerland, Belgium and South Korea.

“We are also studying the possibility of establishing more foreign branch offices to augment the 14 existing offices in order to serve more OFWs,” Templo said.

Unofficial estimates place the number of Filipinos in over 190 countries around the world at 8 million, comprising 20 percent of the total productive labor force of the country.

At least 4.8 million are migrant workers who have specific contracts but without proper documentation.

SSS reported its net income went up in the first quarter of 2006 on the back of higher contributions, posting a 37.8-percent increase in profits to P2.37 billion from P1.72 billion in 2005. The first-quarter performance this year was a result of higher collections at P12.94 billion, or 13.7 percent more than the P11.38 billion in 2005.

SSS’ total assets grew 4.1 percent to P208.04 billion, while its reserve fund went up 3.9 percent to P204 billion.