MANILA, 2 May 2003 — President Gloria Arroyo yesterday announced an “improved” package of benefits for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) without a corresponding increase in their contributions to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
At the same time, the president appointed four representatives from the labor sector to sit in two agencies that serve the welfare of workers here and abroad.
In her Labor Day address at the World Trade center, Arroyo said the package include the doubling of death benefits from 50,000 pesos to P100,000, with an increase of P25,000 every five years of continued membership for a maximum of P200,000.
Also included will be a maximum disability benefit of P50,000 in addition to those paid by Philhealth (Philippine Health Insurance) for hospitalization.
Arroyo said the government would provide a scholarship program for 100 children of OFWs annually and pilot pre-schools for OFW children would be set up in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
She also announced the allocation of P3 billion for intensified training in construction, welding, electronics, and information technology courses to prepare for employment young workers from the Special Zones of Peace and Development Areas in Mindanao.
Arroyo’s new appointees included Esperanza Ocampo of the Philippine Government Employees Association labor sector representative in the Pag-ibig Fund.
“Because housing is very important to the workers, I have decided to appoint (labor representatives) to the Pag-ibig,” Arroyo said in her speech.
Ocampo joins Alex Aguilar of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, who was re-appointed to the post.
“After a long search,” the president also said she finally chose Proculo Sarmen and Ernesto Verceles as commissioners in the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).
She said the presence of labor representatives in the NLRC would “strengthen” tripartism in the country.
Arroyo delivered her traditional Labor Day speech at the World Trade Center as scores of job hunters tried their luck at a jobs’ fair held at the WTC grounds.
Job hunters — most of them in their early 20s — checked the jobs available posted on the white boards.
Among the jobs available were: primary school teachers in Jakarta, Indonesia and scores of janitors, security personnel and messengers with agencies in Metro Manila.
The Labor Day celebration focused on the achievement of the Filipino worker, and the president made much of the fact that Filipino health workers deployed to countries severely hit by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) chose to stay there and take care of their patients instead of coming back to the Philippines.
