Press Release
January 7, 2008

Villar calls for strong oversight of P10-B OWWA fund to prevent misuse, repeat of $25 overbilling

Senate President Manny Villar today called for "stringent oversight" of the P10 -billion overseas worker's welfare fund so that lapses such as the overbilling of the $25 fee collected from each departing worker will not happen again and that the fund be used properly.

"We have to make sure that the fund for overseas workers really works for the improvement of the condition of our OFWs. A system where we can check its performance should be in place," Villar said.

Villar said the agency managing the fund, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, is classified as a government corporation with a budget outside congressional budget review.

The President, for all her powers, has to go to Congress for money but OWWA with all membership contributions coming from OFWs is exempt. It can allocate and spend its own money without congressional authorization," he said.

"At the very least it's budget should pass congressional scrutiny similar to the case of energy bodies, such as the National Power Corporation, whose budget is submitted to Congress, even if the latter does not approve it, " he said.

"This way we will have an idea and it becomes part of public record how much of every peso OWWA earns goes to direct services to OFWs and how much is overhead, "he said.

Starting out as a "welfare and training fund for overseas workers" created by President Marcos in the late 1970s, OWWA has grown into an agency with audited total assets of P9.95 billion as of end 2006.

In 2005, it collected P1.258 billion from 994,191 about-to-be-deployed workers, on the promise that for a $25-fee, a member will receive up to P100,000 in disability benefits and P200,000 in accidental death benefits .

But that year, total payout in insurance benefits reached only P163 million, an amount dwarfed by OWWA's payroll and operating expenses.

Villar said the argument for stricter "executive and legislative oversight" of OWWA is borne by audit observations made by the Commission on Audit for fiscal year 2006.

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