Press Release
August 16, 2009

LOREN TO ASK OWWA TO ACCOUNT FOR FUNDS

Sen. Loren Legarda said Saturday that she will file a Senate resolution to investigate the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to find out how it spends the funds contributed by overseas Filipino workers now amounting to P11.4 billon dollars.

Loren made the statement during a forum Usapang OFW held over Radio DZMM and ABS-CBN television, attended by OFWs, including truck drivers who had returned from the Middle Easter after losing their jobs.

Loren said that aside from filing the resolution, she would start this week to question OWWA officials to account for the OWWA funds which come from contributions of $25 from each OFW worker who leaves for abroad. There are about 8-10 million OFWs now working abroad.

During the forum, an OFW complained that the overseas workers do not benefit from their contributions to OWWA. He also said that OFWs do not have any control, nor say, on how the money was to be spent. He said that the OFWs are not even represented in the OWWA board.

Loren said she had verified this when in a recent trip to Malaysia, she personally paid out of her own pocket for the air fare of 12 Filipino women who wanted to return home after they were forced by their recruiter to go into prostitution.

According to Loren, many OFWs in the Middle East and from other parts of the world have asked her office for help on their problems, mostly financial. "This is the work of the OWWA, but my office had no recourse but to help the OFWs, coordinating with the other offices like the Department of Labor and Employment and the foreign office, to extend help to these OFWs in trouble."

Loren said that it is time that the OWWA should account for its funds contributed by the OFWs, including their interests from deposits and investments. She also said the OWWA should provide returning OFWs for seed capital for small and medium enterprises that would provide them a living when they return from their foreign jobs.

She also said she has a program to help improve the conditions of OFWs and assist them to integrate into local society once they return from abroad. One is the strengthen pre-departure seminars to acclimate OFWs about the culture in the countries where they are destined to work.

Second is for all embassies and consulates in countries where there are OFWs to establish 24/7 hotlines so they can be contacted by OFWs who have problems with their employers, legal, financial and technical cases; third, to provide repatriation funds for OFWs to enable them to come home in case of financial distress or other problems; and fourth, skills development training and scholarship development funds for children of OFWs and a reintegration program after their return from work.

On the question of how to make the best use of foreign remittances by workers, Loren declared that she would look into the status of the overseas investments act which could be used to provide funds for overseas workers to engage in entrepreneurial activities when they return from abroad. She also encouraged OFWs who would want to be foreign citizens to seek dual citizenship with the help of the consulates.

Loren said that OFWs in Hong Kong who have been excluded from the minimum wage law should seek the help of the Philippine consulate to negotiate with the HK government for higher wages. On returning OFWs, Loren said the TESDA should provide them with retraining, aside from getting loans from the Small Business Corporations to start small businesses of their own.

The cases of OFWs held in foreign countries should be restudied by the government and legal aid provided them so as to secure their release or more lenient treatment.

Loren, for her part, was asked which Filipino superhero she idolized and she considered Darna as her idol because "Darna is always prepared, always has a solution to any problem, decisive and principled," she said.

"Head and heart, compassionate because she is a woman," Loren added.

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