No legal aid for 9,000 jailed OFWs

With no reliable source of government funding for legal assistance, an estimated 9,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) imprisoned abroad are left to fend for themselves, according to migrant organizations.

In a statement, Migrante International said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has yet to regain its Legal Assistance Fund (LAF) that was dropped from the 2014 national budget.

“Until now, there is still no clear item for the LAF budget of the DFA, resulting in insufficient legal support for our jailed OFWs,” Migrante International said in a joint statement with the Legal Assistance Sigaw ng Migrante at Pamilya (LAYA).

The allocation was cut despite a provision in the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act that a R100-million budget should be maintained for the LAF.

In 2015, President Benigno Aquino III issued a “conditional veto” for the LAF item, which allows DFA to still use it provided it is drawn from the department’s savings and revenue collections.

Editha Dacanay, convenor of LAYA and the mother of a jailed OFW, said the absence of a budget for the LAF may diminish the chances of the detained Filipino workers to appeal their case.

“Because of what happened to Jakatia Pawa, we are now afraid our loved ones will also suffer due to the continuous neglect of the government for their cases,” Dacanay said.

Last week, Pawa was executed in Kuwait after being convicted of killing the daughter of her employer.

LAYA has called for the reinstatement of the LFA budget and its increase from R100 million to R1 billion.

The group said the previous budget was enough to help around 2 percent of the estimated 9,000 jailed OFWs abroad.

“As the average legal fees amount up to US 10,000 per case, only 222 of imprisoned OFWs will be able to benefit from the LAF,” LAYA said.

Migrante International urged Duterte to address the alarming “underutilization and reduction” of the LAF in previous years.

It cited a report from the DFA’s Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA) stating only R9.4 million of the R80million LAF for 2011 was used.

It said the LAF for 2012 was not touched.

In 2013, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto del Rosario said R41.12 million was left in the fund after legal aid was provided to 258 of 5,979 imprisoned OFWs.

“We demand that negligent officials of DFA be held accountable for the troubles they caused to the OFWs and their families,” Migrante International said.