Press Release
January 5, 2008

PIMENTEL PROPOSE REDUCTION OF MEMBERSHIP FEE FOR MIGRANT WORKERS TO P200

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today urged the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to reduce the membership fee that it is collecting from each departing overseas Filipino worker (OFW) to only P200.

Pimentel made the proposal even as OWWA has announced that it has reduced the membership fee for migrant workers by P225 - from P1,275 to P1,050.

While hailing the OWWA's decision to cut down the fee, he said P1,050 fee is still a huge amount and is hard on the pockets of the OFWs.

"I commend the OWWA for reducing the fee. It's a good move. Better still if it is reduced to P200, whatever be the exchange rate between the peso and the US dollar," Pimentel said.

"We are talking here of 'fees' which in the old law means payment for the cost of processing papers. P200 would be reasonable enough to cover those costs."

The minority leader said the OWWA fee is not meant to be a revenue-generating scheme. If the idea is to generate revenue, then OWWA needs a specific law from Congress to be able to do that, he stressed.

A non-government organization, the Philippine Migrants' Watch has denounced the "huge fee" as "illegal."

OWWA said that from now on, membership fee would be based on the peso-dollar exchange rate, as reported by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for the preceding month.

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