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By Joshua Dancel
A congressman has filed separate measures putting up a new
Department of Overseas Filipino Workers (DOFW) and a special bank
for the “unsung heroes” sectors.
Rep. Augusto Boboy Syjuco has also filed a third bill, calling for
the establishment of an OFW Medical Center.
House Bill 4788 would abolish the Philippine Overseas Employment
Administration (POEA) and the Overseas Workers Welfare
Administration, and merge this under the DOFW. House Bill 4812 sets
up the special hospital, 4900, the OFW bank.
Syjuco said the three bills aim to focus on OFW concerns and expand
services and benefits for the country’s unsung heroes.
Already, his proposals are drawing mixed reactions from stakeholders
— cautious support from the OWWA and the POEA, and rejection from
the militant group Migrante.
Overlapping tasks
The legislator claimed confusion, stemming from overlapping
functions, has delayed or blocked the delivery of services to OFWs.
He accused the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department
of Foreign Affairs of tossing the ball back and forth.
“We expect the number of OFWs to double in the next 10 years — now
it’s about 3.5 to four million — so the government should prepare
for this. We should systematize the entire procedure of the OFW
industry under one roof,” he said.
The bank and the hospital, he added, would also cater to OFWs’
dependents.
“Expanded health services and financial benefits, like loans for
livelihood projects of the OFWs families, among others would be the
thrust of these two other proposals,” he said. Under the bills, the
government will allocate at least P2 billion to establish the DOFW,
hospital, and bank.
Streamlining
This runs counter to the government’s present thrust to divest of
business interests and consolidate agencies.
Syjuco, however, insisted the government should spare the OFW sector
from its belt-tightening measures.
“It is their remittances that prop up our economy, so why be frugal
on their benefits. We should in fact spend for them because the
returns anyway is a hundred fold,” he said.
Both OWWA Administrator Wilhelm Soriano and POEA Administrator
Baldoz Rosalinda Baldoz expressed openness to the idea of abolishing
the two agencies and merging them under a separate department,
independent of the DOLE.
“We welcome all efforts to streamline the delivery of services to
OFWs. It’s about time that the government takes a more focused
attention on overseas employment,” Soriano said, stressing that the
export labor industry has been ongoing for 30 years now.
Baldoz said a holistic approach encourages good governance.
Fund question
However, Soriano raised certain concerns over the possibility of
mixing the “private funds” of OWWA with that of the government’s,
the same concern raised by OWWA Employees Union spokesman Toribio
Robles.
He said OWWA’s money came from the contributions of the OFWs and not
allocated by government; hence, making the money a “trust fund.”
“They should look into the legal implications of merging the private
fund with the public funds because this is one issue that will
definitely have to be answered,” he said.
Robles, meanwhile, said they would be more supportive of the idea if
the OWWA is given a corporate charter, similar to that of the SSS,
GSIS, and the Pag-ibig, for the fund management.
Syjuco said he would consult with various OFW organizations. He also
assured that OWWA funds would not be mixed with government monies.
At the same time, Syjuco said security of tenure of workers from the
two agencies would be protected and implied that expanded services
would need more workers.
Despite the apparent noble intentions of the bills, the militant
Migrante International opposed the measures saying it would further
institutionalize the effects of globalization as imposed by the
International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
“The answer is never to continue the exports of labor abroad.
Instead, we should create jobs here for our workers abroad to come
home. They are just systematizing globalization here,” said Poe
Gratela, Migrante’s secretary- general. He said that with the
creation of the DOFW, “they will just continue to squeeze blood from
the OFW.”
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