JEDDAH, 4 November – After more than a year fighting for his claims against his employer, worker Paul Mirabuna wishes to go home and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) says his wish will be granted.
“In three days, you will go home,” Labor Attaché Carlos Sta. Ana promised during a meeting arranged between him and several distressed OFWs by the umbrella group Alyansa.
Sta. Ana made the promise when Mirabuna insisted that he could not wait any longer for his case to be resolved.
While granting Mirabuna’s wish to go home, however, Sta. Ana said the OFW will forfeit his claim.
Given no other choice, Mirabuna said he is willing to waive his claim amounting to SR5,000 because he really wants to go home.
The 27-year-old welder said he has lost his patience because after waiting for 15 months for the resolution of his case, there seem to be no end in sight. While the Saudi Labor Office had long issued a ruling against his employer to pay his claim, the decision until now has remained unenforced.
Mirabuna was one of five distressed OFWs presented to Sta. Ana, all of whom echoed the same sentiment.
The others were Nilo Portugal, Arnold de los Santos, Mario de Leon and Augusto Nemon.
All five sought the help of Alyansa in hopes that their cases would be expedited. Joe Paduga, chairman of Alyansa’s welfare committee, took them under his wings and has taken the lead in helping them go home. Paduga has also dug into his pocket for their food and other needs.
These distressed OFWs opted to go home because they have no jobs and therefore not earning any single halala. They just rely on the kindness of other OFWs to survive.
For shelter, they sleep in friends’s homes or wherever they can because there is no place for “runaway” men in the Philippine Consulate. The Consulate according to Sta. Ana has no budget to sustain the needs of these distressed workers, although food, medicines, and clothing can be provided on a case-to-case basis.
Sta. Ana brought along with him copies of “Gabay ng OFW” and the English edition of the Saudi Labor and Workmen’s Law that he requested Alyansa to distribute to OFWs for reference.
Gabay ng OFW is a primer that explains (in Tagalog) what steps OFWs should make if they encounter problems with their employer, processes in tackling their cases, how distressed OFWs could be sent home, and other topics.
Sta. Ana discouraged OFWs to run away from their employers should they encounter problems. “Ipaabot n’yo sa amin ang problema ninyo (inform us about your problems but don’t run away),” he advised.
But according to Meliton Negrido, when employees of a company in the Industrial City complained of unjust practices to the labor office, the whistleblowers were revealed to the management of the company.
“Buti na lang at hindi pinauwi yung mga taong nagsumbong,” regretted Negrido.
If ever the case is filed and the Saudi employer is found guilty, it will take time for the ruling to be implemented because the employer can play hide-and-seek with authorities. Like in the case of Mirabuna. His employer has been found guilty but serving the decision to the employer has taken forever to complete.
Even Sta. Ana admitted that because of the process, cases that have been decided still take time to be completely resolved because there is no specific timetable in carrying out labor rulings.
Sta. Ana said it would take a bilateral agreement between Saudi Arabia and the Philippines to solve this problem.
In short, many of the meeting participants observed, distressed OFWs who lose their patience are bound to lose, and there are not a few of them.
A way out
During the visit of Labor Secretary Patricia Sta. Ana to the Kingdom last May, however, her delegation pointed out that an OFW can always run after the recruitment agency who deployed him or her abroad for claims the employer refuses to pay.
The head of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), who was with the delegation, had said most of the cases filed with her office were won by OFWs.
An official of the Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. (PASEI), one of the three major groups of labor recruiters at home, had earlier said the NLRC statement was correct but such policy was hurting Philippine businessmen for an offense they did not commit.
PASEI President Victor Fernandez Jr. had said they are seeking to correct this “unjust” policy by offering to put up a fund that will address all the problems of OFWs, recruiters and the government.
Under this proposed fund, an OFW who has a claim against his or her foreign employer would be entitled to a $100 monthly subsistence allowance while fighting for the case in his/her place of work.
The OFW would also be entitled to repatriation expenses (expenses for plane ticket going home) in case the employer reneges on his obligation.
A third and major component provides that a valid claim by an OFW not paid by the employer may be paid by from the fund.
In return for putting up the fund, PASEI wants recruitment agencies to be freed from the “Joint and Solidary Liability” provision, in which recruiters could be made to answer for the sins of the foreign employer.
No OFW group has so far reacted to this proposal, which PASEI said is being taken up by some members of Congress.
GMA’s project for OFWs
During the Alyansa meeting, the Jeddah representatives of President Gloria Arroyo’s current project to provide more assistance to OFWs were introduced.
One of them was Dr. Ramon F. Moreno, an internist, who holds office at the consulate. He offers free consultation to OFWs, both documented and undocumented.
Another members was social worker Fatima P. Abobakar, whose main function is to offer guidance counseling to distressed female OFWs.
Dr. Moreno and Mrs. Abobakar were among the first to be deployed under the project being tried in the Kingdom, Singapore, Kuwait, and Hong Kong.
Dr. Moreno can also be a resource person for Filipino communities with regard to health issues.
But because his license as a doctor is not honored in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Moreno can’t prescribe medicines to patients. For him to be able to fully function as a doctor he has to take an examination at the Kingdom’s Ministry of Health.
With a number of concerns brought to his attention, and feeling a bit shorthanded, Dr. Moreno exclaimed: “I feel like a soldier sent to battle with a gun!”
He said that his budget for medicines has yet to be approved. Even then, the good doctor wants to “deliver the services needed by OFWs.”
As women OFWs are the most vulnerable to abuse, Mrs. Abobakar’s services as a social worker hopes to influence their lives for the better.
During the meeting, Alyansa president Sam de los Santos, said: “We have learned so many things in our meeting with consulate officials. We learned about procedures and how cases can be resolved. Alyansa will continue to help distressed OFWs, in cooperation with the consulate, in the best way it can.”
