MANILA/RIYADH, 17 May — A Philippine senator called for an investigation into the alleged misuse of funds from migrant Filipino workers being collected by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
Sen. Noli de Castro filed a resolution late Wednesday for the Senate to intervene Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas and OWWA Administrator Wilhelmn Soriano went public over their quarrel on the welfare fund.
Santo Tomas on Tuesday and Wednesday told the media that the OWWA lost 1.2-billion-pesos in failed investments without approval from OWWA’s Board of Trustees, chief of which is the labor secretary herself.
Sto. Tomas further charged that OWWA, whose mandate is to oversee the welfare of migrant Filipino workers, is spending an average of only 22 percent of its collection from OFWs for the workers’ welfare.
On the other hand, the agency spends about 77 percent of the workers’ money for administrative expenses, including salaries and benefits of its employees and consultants.
OFW groups had earlier said what this meant was that that the agency was just being made a milking cow or an employment agency for OWWA personnel and consultants.
Soriano has said the investments were indeed made without a board resolution, but he insisted there was nothing illegal about it.
However, Sto. Tomas claimed that this was only part of the problem. She said there was also something wrong about the way OWWA spent the workers’ money.
Soriano had said OWWA’s investing into the Smokey Mountain Project Participation Certificates, a flagship project involving a low-cost housing project in the former dump in Tondo, Manila, was actually done during the time of Administrator David Corpin. But Santo Tomas pointed out that P100 million of the investment was released in February 1995 when Corpin was the agency’s chief.
But when the additional P500 million was released in December of 1995, Soriano was already the OWWA chief.
OFWs shocked
The revelation made by Santo Tomas has jolted many Filipinos in Saudi Arabia, where many distressed OFWs are stranded.
Earlier news reports about shenanigans in the OWWA have been met with ambivalence. But Santo Tomas’ disclosure about the lost fund that may never be recovered were too much to bear.
“No wonder OWWA’s assistance to distressed OFWs comes in a trickle,” reacted Leopoldo Guevarra, who is working at one of the plastic factories in the second industrial area in Riyadh.
A domestic helper sheltered at the Bahay Kalinga exclaimed: “Kaya pala napakabagal magpadala ng ticket para sa distressed workers dahil nalugi sila.”
Many OFWs now believe that the $25 mandatory membership fee imposed by OWWA on them are meant to replenish the “lost” amount. A female nurse uttered with disgust that a decisive investigation has to be done and those responsible must be punished.
