MANILA, 19 July — Administrator Wilhelm Soriano yesterday said he will quit after the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration’s (OWWA) Board of Directors voted to put a cap on the agency’s budget for this year.
In an exclusive interview with ArabNews, Soriano said unless the board reconsiders its decision, he will have to resign.
“It’s either I endure and keep quiet or get out,” said Soriano, who added that he will insist on leaving even if President Gloria Arroyo orders him to remain.
None of the OWWA’s 11 other board members sided with Soriano’s budget proposal for OWWA.
Seven of them, including the sectoral representatives of Overseas Filipino Workers, labor and employers voted to put a cap of 562 million pesos for the year 2002, which is 80 percent of the agency’s actual revenue collections for 2001.
The amount P180 million less than the 2001 budget of P742 million.
Voting with Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas, who chairs the Board, Labor Undersecretary Manuel Imson, Assistant Secretary Eduardo Opida of the Department of Budget and Management, organized labor representative Avelino Valerio, management sector representative Caroline Roge, sea-based labor sector representative Gregorio Oca, and land-based sector representative Carolina Carsola.
The rest were either absent or abstained: They were Emmanuel Bonoan of the Department of Finance, Undersecretary Merlin Magallona of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, and women’s sector representative Virginia Pasalo.
Soriano, who is vice chairman of the Board, said the vote has made his relationship with his fellow directors “no longer tenable” because it would mean a reduction in the OWWA’s services.
“With the approval of the cut, definitely we cannot accommodate requests for funding assistance,” he said.
However, he added that this would not mean the shutdown of the agency, as had previously been reported. “We will try our best to cope with the situation,” he said.
Asked if he had tendered his resignation, Soriano said: “I will try to endure about a month and maybe if there are no changes by mid-August,” he will throw in the towel.
“If the president says I stay put, I would appeal to her that she should let me go,” he added.
Reminded that some groups were also demanding the resignation of Secretary Sto. Tomas, Soriano said: “It cannot be that I stay and Secretary Sto. Tomas departs. I would rather go.”
He said he was giving way to Sto. Tomas because “she’s the boss.
She’s my boss and boss is always right.”
Soriano said the budget ceiling imposed by the board only comes on top of the fact that most of OWWA’s expenditures have to pass through the board. Last week the board deferred action on Soriano’s request for an additional P12 million to replenish the already depleted Emergency Repatriation Fund (ERF).
The ERF was first established in 1995. The replenishment of the P100 million ERF was set aside for further study although this is being earmarked to bring home at least 431 runaways and stranded overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) now cramped in OWWA centers in eight countries in Asia and the Middle East. The 431 OFWs are awaiting repatriation in OWWA centers in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Jeddah, Alkhobar), Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Hong Kong, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
He also said that Sto. Tomas issued a recall order for OWWA’s welfare officer in Taiwan “without the courtesy of informing me when this is an administrative matter.” Another of OWWA’s constitutionally mandated functions, the reintegration of OFWs, has also been transferred a newly created department for reintegration at the DOLE headed by Undersecretary Lucita Lazo.
DOLE had also removed the OWWA-Medicare and transferred handling of OFWs health insurance to PhilHealth. Soriano told Arab News the board likewise suspended four of the benefits enjoyed by OWWA employees until they can show the DBM’s approval of these benefits, Provident Fund, staple food subsidy, gift check given out during Christmas, and the 14th month pay.
He said he would continue to get this certification on behalf of OWWA employees since “they’re my employees. “I must be supportive of them. I told the employees that maybe if I leave, it might pave the way for a dialogue between the secretary and the employees,” Soriano said, adding, “a compromise would be obtained.”
