JEDDAH, 25 March — A two-member team of Philippine officials had a series of meetings with ministers and officials as well as community leaders in Riyadh and Jeddah over the past four days.
"We had successful meetings with Interior Minister Prince Naif and Labor Minister and Social Affairs Minister Ali Al-Namlah about the welfare and rights of Filipino migrant workers," Merlin M. Magallona, undersecretary for migrant workers affairs at the Manila-based Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, told a press conference at Alhamra Sofitel Hotel yesterday.
Replacement of work contracts originally approved by the Philippine government was among the prominent issues that came up for discussion during the meetings, said Magallona, who was accompanied by Bayani V. Mangibin, secretary-general at the Pasay City-based Philippine Claims and Compensation Committee Secretariat.
"There has been a keen interest shown by the community in the proposed Overseas Filipino Investment Bonds," Magallona said.
"We also discussed the question of UN compensation due the migrant workers displaced by the Gulf War over 10 years ago, some of whom might have come to the Kingdom to work," he said.
Absentee voting by overseas Filipinos in national elections was yet another issue discussed.
Magallona said there are some 7.3 million Filipinos abroad, 1.2 million of them in the Gulf alone — including 850,000 in Saudi Arabia, the largest concentration of the country’s migrant workers in any single country in the world.
"Remittances from overseas Filipinos the world over account for $8 to 10 billion," he said, adding that the country’s 200,000 seafarers … were the largest for any country in the world. "We’ve been addressing the needs of seafarers, too," he said.
The proposed bonds are to be in the denomination of $100. They are convertible, which means on their maturity after three years they can be converted into corporate shares or any other accepted form of investment. They carry an interest of 2.5 percent, which is higher than what is offered by commercial banks in the country. The bonds are likely to be floated in June. They are already being tried in Japan and Hong Kong as a pilot project, according to Magallona. "We’re clearing the matter with the Japanese Ministry of Finance. We’re in the process of selecting underwriter banks. The bonds are in the interest of OFWs, in mobilizing their savings for their own use when they return home for good," he added.
He said he could not quantify how much the bonds would net, but the government had plans to invest the entire amount thus realized in national development projects and also ease part of the international debt burden.
About absentee voting, he said seven major political parties in the Philippines had expressed consensus in favor of allowing overseas Filipinos to vote during the country’s national elections. This include electing the president and vice president every six years, and senators and party-list representatives every three years.
Several hundred OFWs displaced during the Gulf War have filed their claims for compensation, which the UN guarantees, according to Magallona.
The team also discussed with over 130 community leaders in Jeddah their suggestion for establishing a welfare committee independent of the consulate. "Such a committee with a small fund can be set up with donations from the private sector. The fund could come handy for OFWs when in distress," said Magallona.
The team, which came to the Kingdom on a consultation mission after a tour of Europe, proceeded to Kuwait last night.
