Press Release
May 8, 2008

Villar hits OWWA decision to stop pre-departure loans to OFWs

Senate President Manny Villar questioned the decision of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to suspend its pre-departure loans to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Villar, Nacionalista Party president, said, "This effectively shatters the hopes and chances of many of our financially incapable workers to earn a decent living abroad, leaving them at the mercy of loan sharks."

OWWA recently announced that it was suspending its pre-departure loans to OFWs after incurring an estimated P70 million in losses due to non-payment. It has reportedly granted P70 million in loans "but only 30 percent (of the OFWs) have been paying back."

Villar said that instead of immediately blocking OFWs' access to direly needed pre-departure loans, OWWA must consider improving its collection system first to make it more effective and recoup its losses.

The Senate President stressed, "Pre-departure assistance to OFWs is a very crucial component of our efforts to enable our workers to grab work opportunities abroad."

Villar noted that many OFWs encounter problems abroad like non-payment of their wages, human trafficking and legal cases which make them incapable of paying their loans but an efficiently managed system should take these into consideration.

Labor Secretary and concurrent OWWA chief Marianito Roque also said that despite the loss, the agency remained financially stable.

Roque reported that the current total assets of OWWA stood at P10.2 billion, of which P8.2 billion was in various investments while the rest was being used for worker welfare assistance programs such as livelihood projects, scholarships, training and repatriation funds.

Villar, who is pushing for a P1-billion repatriation fund after he himself sponsored the repatriation of at least 15 maltreated OFWs last month, reiterated that if government can give assistance in training and scholarships to aspiring OFWs, then it should not also neglect pre-departure aid to them who are ready to work overseas.

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