JEDDAH, 25 July 2003 — By next year, the overseas employment certificate (OEC) required of all Filipinos leaving for work abroad will be a thing of the past, an official of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) has said.
In lieu of the OEC that had often been faked, workers would be required to carry their OWWA e-cards, which they will be made to swipe at the airport before checking in for their flight abroad.
OWWA Director Manolito Roque revealed this plan on Tuesday night at the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah during a presentation of the newest government program for OFWs, called “The Kabayanihan Project.”
According to Roque, the e-card contains all information pertaining to the holder, including a permanent ID number. The card, as it was envisioned, would also make transaction with government agencies as easy as a swipe.
The card will also be used to help account for OFWs. Roque himself said that determining the number of OFWs has been a “guesstimate.”
Observers said the catch is that use of the e-card also institutionalizes the charging of $25 for each OFW as membership fee with OWWA.
Amid objections by OFW organizations over the mandatory payment of the $25 OWWA membership fee, Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas formed a committee to look into the issue.
In her dialogues with OFWs in Riyadh and Jeddah last year, she promised to report on what decision the government would take after the committee submits its report.
“The government has continued to exact the fee but we have never heard even a whisper from Secretary Santo Tomas, explaining why OFWs have to shell out the amount everytime they leave the country for work abroad,” one community member in Jeddah said.
Roque admitted that the OWWA needs fresh funds. He said that of the agency’s 3.2-billion-peso money, 2.5 to 2.9 billion pesos are invested in government treasury bonds and classified as “trust liability fund.” A total of 300 million pesos is classified as “receivables.”
Roque said the agency’s receivables are a headache. OWWA has used every trick in the book but they can’t collect from borrowers, he said.
The irony is that most of these delinquent borrowers were former OFWs and manpower agencies who couldn’t afford the repatriation of workers they have deployed abroad but encountered problems with their employers.
OWWA couldn’t even foreclose the borrowers’ properties because there has to be litigation and due process, Roque said.
Community members who attended the dialogue with Roque poured out their misgivings over the lack of transparency by the OWWA investing the money of OFWs and in dealing with them,
Evelyn Santos of PICPA and the Bag-ong Bicol Saro nin Jeddah organizations said there was not even a semblance of consultation with OFW organizations, even through the Internet, when the Arroyo government appointed a representative of OFWs in the OWWA Board.
“We don’t even know who our representative is,” she said.
Others who attended the meeting said community groups should coordinate among themselves and find out how they can present all their complaints to President Arroyo when she comes to the Kingdom in September.
Roque also revealed that the 100-million-peso repatriation fund of OWWA is all but expended. He said the agreement with the government was to chip in to the fund on a “50-50 basis” whenever there are expenditures.
But the fund was fully expended in no time because the government never kept its part of the bargain, he admitted.
OWWA has to advance the repatriation of distressed OFWs because recruiters are most of the time unable to do so, he added.
Shortage of funds makes repatriation of distressed workers doubly difficult, he said, which is why some distressed workers have been waiting for their tickets for years.
In Jeddah, among the latest to be funded by the welfare agency were the Jeddah-Manila plane tickets of 13 fishermen who left their employer after months of working without pay. OWWA also provided a repatriation ticket for a pregnant Filipino nurse who was abandoned by her Pakistani husband, Arab News learned.
The Kabayanihan Project presented by Roque and his entourage in Riyadh and Jeddah puts together the services of OWWA, the Labor Department, the POEA, SSS, and Pag-ibig Fund and other agencies in a one-stop-shop type of operation.
This is supposed to make it easier for OFWs but it was shot down by some OFWs as nothing new.
“I have been in the kingdom for the past 15 years, and I see nothing new in the programs offered by these agencies,” Sam de los Santos, resident of the umbrella group Alyansa said.
One good news from OWWA was that the scholarship program it is starting to offer for dependents of OFWs this school year. At present, Roque said, they are looking for 100 scholars to study in the University of the Philippines.
OWWA will also send scholars to other universities such as Ateneo de Manila and La Salle for similar scholarship grants. The program will be available in all 15 regional offices of OWWA.
Roque was joined in the presentation by Consul General Kadatuan P. Usop, who gave the opening speech, Labor Attaché Nasser Munder, Artemio Vitug of Pag-IBIG, Benjie Hermoso and OWWA Welfare Officer Mustapha U.H. Glang.
