1100-M emergency repatriation fund set aside in 2017 GAA for distressed OFWs

The Senate has set aside a 1100million “emergency repatriation fund” in the proposed 13.3-trillion national budget for 2017 to be used by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to bring home distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) next year.

This after the Upper Chamber adopted the repatriation fund scheme of Senate Minority Leader Ralph G. Recto who wanted 11.5 billion set aside to help distressed OFWs abroad.

As the bicameral conference committee panels of both the Senate and the House of Representatives started this week their meeting to iron out their differing versions of the national budget, Recto challenged administration lawmakers to raise the amount as there are many more “out-of-luck and out-of-cash” Filipino workers abroad waiting to be reunited with their families in the Philippines.

The 1 100-million fund, Recto stressed, should just be “a component of a bigger help fund for OFWs,” which “must reach at least 11.5 billion,” or 300 percent bigger than what Malacañang has proposed for 2017.

For 2017, the Duterte administration has asked Congress to allocate 150 million to be lodged under the Office of the DOLE secretary for OFW repatriation.

This is on top of the 131 million to be set aside by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) for the same purpose.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has also proposed an Assistance to Nationals (ATN) Fund for 2017 amounting to 1400 million, the same as this year’s.

Augmenting the DFA’s ATN is the Legal Assistance Fund, which will have a proposed funding of 1100 million.

“Pagsamahin mo lahat ito, 1580 million lang. Kulang na kulang ito sa pangangailangan ng mga OFWs natin na kailangang umuwi sa panahon ng sakuna at kagipitan,” Recto pointed out. (Adding these all up, they total 1580 million only. This amount is too small to bring OFWs back to the country when they need to come back for varied reasons.)

“Yang 1500 million, ‘yan ang remittance ng mga kababayan natin sa Hong Kong sa loob lamang ng apat na araw at limang oras. 1500 million is also what OFWs in Italy remit to their homeland in just 12 days,” Recto said. (That 1500 million is just the remittance of our OFWs in Hong Kong who earn this in a matter of four days and five hours.)

“Half a billion pesos is our katas ng Saudi in less than 34 hours,” the senator pointed out. (Half billion is our OFWs’ earnings in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in less than 34 hours.)

The 2017 OFW aid fund is “mere four hours’ worth” of all OFW remittances, Recto said, using as basis the $28.48 billion overseas Filipinos sent home last year. “It has grown by 12.3 percent since 2013, but the OFW help fund has remained flat.”

In local currency, last year’s OFW remittances reached 11.3 trillion, or more than a tenth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Recto said Congress needs to find other sources for OFW repatriation since OWWA spends only 69 centavos, or less than one percent, for repatriation out of every 1100 that the agency collects from OFWs.

Citing a Commission on Audit report (COA), Recto noted that OWWA “issued a measly 119 plane tickets for repatriated OFWs last year.”

“Hindi pa makakapuno ng isang eroplano. One-third lang ng isang Airbus 320, at yan ay para sa isang taon,” the senator lamented. (The tickets are not enough to fill up a plane. OFWs using these tickets occupy only a third of an Airbus 320 in just one year.)

This, despite OWWA spending almost 11.8 billion in 2015, of which 117 million was for the purchase of the 119 airline tickets.

This low figure should not come as a surprise, Recto said, “because the number of returning workers given ‘domestic transportation assistance’ by OWWA was a mere 856 last year, halos wala pang tatlo kada araw.”

Departing OFWs are required to pay a membership contribution of $25 or its local currency equivalent on a per contract basis, but shall not exceed two years. The same amount shall be paid upon renewal of membership in succeeding years.