OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) rights advocates disagree with the new amendment in the law that directs OFWs to show proof of their entitlement to the remittance they are sending home if they are to be exempted from the DST (Documentary Stamp Tax).

“The government is committing robbery in broad daylight with this issue of DST on OFW remittances,” said Rashid Fabricante, OFWs Global advocate. He described it as an anti- OFW provision. “We will not allow this issue to proceed,” he observed.

According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) OFW remittances will now be exempt from tax ‘upon showing proof of entitlement by the recipient’.

“The remittances of all Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs) or Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) shall be exempt from the payment of Documentary Stamp Tax if the beneficiary or recipient shows the Overseas Employment Certificate or valid Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) or Membership Certificate or electronic receipt issued by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

In case of OCWs or OFWs whose remittances are sent through the banking system, credited to beneficiaries or recipient’s account in the Philippines and withdrawn through an automatic teller machine, or sent through non-bank money transfer agents, it shall be the responsibility of the OCW or OFW to show the valid proof of entitlement when making arrangements for his/her remittance transfers.”

Commenting on this issue Fabricante asked, “How will the recipients show these documents of entitlement every time they go to collect the remittance as they are kept with the beneficiaries?” We hold the Department of Finance and the Congress in contempt for blackmailing the OFW sector, he added.

Citing his fellow former OFW, Jun Aguilar, CEO of Filipino Migrant Workers (FMW Groups), who is in the front line of opposing the amendment Fabricante said, “OFWs remit $24 billion in a year or the equivalent of Php1.2 billion which goes to the government for paying their pool of lawyers.”

He said this amount should be given to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in the various Philippine missions abroad and in the Middle East instead to pay for legal representations of any OFWs who are in trouble in that country.

According to a report, there is an exemption of the DST which came with the implementation of the Republic Act 10022, a law amending RA 8042 or the Migrant Workers Act of 1995 which took effect in early November.