What is the Truth about the OWWA Funds?

Posted by Belarmino Dabalos Saguing
Rome, Italy, 20 March 2016


(source : note by Jester-in-exile, Aug. 1, 2006 in reply to the article  Truth about OWWA funds August01, 2006, Posted in: Congress Watch, Governance, In the News, Migrant Workers Issues )

OWWA was established to protect and promote OFWs’ welfare, that much is obvious. It’s even supposed to be part of the budget:

Table from the Article Truth about OWWA funds August01, 2006, Posted in: Congress Watch, Governance, In the News, Migrant Workers Issues

OWWA was established to protect and promote OFWs’ welfare, that much is obvious. It’s even supposed to be part of the budget:

If OWWA funds are inviting much scrutiny regarding the availability of money for the evacuation of OFWs, it is because under Republic Act No. 8042, or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, the agency is mandated to administer, among others, an Emergency Repatriation Fund (ERF) to evacuate overseas workers in case of emergencies such as war, epidemic, disaster or calamities (natural or man-made).

A seed amount of P100 million was set aside for this purpose from the funds managed by OWWA, afterwhich Congress is supposed to allocate no less than P100 million for the ERF in the annual national budget.

Of course, the esteemed members of the House of Reprehensibles didn’t think it was necessary to spend money to protect and promote OFW welfare:

But Congress has failed to allocate a single centavo to the fund over the years.

Instead:

“Since there is no other source, presumably, the ERF gets a share from the $25 charged as fees by OWWA for every contract of OFWs,” says laywer Berteni Causing, who finds the law vague as to where the fund will be sourced.

“With about 3,000 workers leaving abroad every day, even at $1, you could just imagine how much money they are getting in a year,” he says.

OWWA places its average collection from OFWs between P800 million and P1 billion a year — though overseas workers are contesting why they get to be charged the $25 contribution when the law stipulates that “in no way shall the fees be charged or collected from the worker.”

What happens is that OFWs shell out from their hard-earned wages money to make sure that their welfare will be protected. to put it in another way, OFWs are paying OWWA “protection money.”

Now it wouldn’t be so bad, perhaps, if the money the government extorts from OFWs would be for the benefit of OFWs. 

(Each OFW is required to pay USD$25 as membership contributions per contract to replenish OWWA’s welfare fund. OWWA funds are reported to have reached Php18 billion from OFW contributions alone.)

Instead:

But the biggest reason for the apprehension about the OWWA funds’ status, particularly among OFWs, considering the obvious huge amounts of money involved, is that the said funds had been the subject of a number of questionable transactions in the past.

Especially favorable was OWWA to this questionable occupant of Malacañang, Her Royal Asininess Gorya Magarapal-Arrovo, Queen of the Enshanted Kingdom, Defender of Garshi, Freshident, Cheat Ekshecutive, and Grand Kleptocrat of the world’s biggest trapocracy:

OFW groups have also denounced the alleged gross misuse and plunder of OWWA funds in relation to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s candidacy in the 2004 elections involving the transfer of the P530-million Medicare Fund for OFWs to the Philippine Health Corp. (PhilHealth) and $87,757 (then P23.587 million) rechanneled to the International Labor Affairs Service of the Department of Labor and Employment….

In his memorandum to Arroyo, (Francisco Duque III, then PhilHealth president) said “the proposed transfer will have a significant bearing on the 2004 elections.” Three months later in February 2003, Arroyo signed the proposed executive order.

The money enabled Arroyo to give away Philhealth cards valid for a year to people in the places she visited during the campaign. OWWA, by that time, had already been turning down health claims of hundreds of overseas workers and eventually stopped all medical reimbursements in a meeting on January 16, 2004.

Not only did OWWA steal for HRA GMA, but OFWs were screwed even more; the administration wouldn’t give damn if any one of them fell ill — let alone dead.

To the OFWs who bear the burden of the country’s economy on their backs, keeping us afloat with wages earned with their blood and sweat, a suggestion:

For as long as OWWA and the government keep on shafting you, GIVE THE GOVERNMENT THE FINGER. REFUSE TO PAY PROTECTION MONEY TO OWWA.