POEA, OWWA reduce fee on OFWs beginning Jan 1

First, the good news: The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration have reduced the membership fee collected from overseas Filipino workers to reflect the peso appreciation against the US dollar.

Now, the bad news: The reduction won't take effect until January 1, 2008.

Emerging from an emergency meeting of the OWWA board on Thursday, POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz announced that the $25 OWWA membership fee will be pegged at the peso-dollar exchange rate of P42:$1, instead of P51:$1, beginning Jan. 1, 2008

This translates to P1, 050, instead of the P1, 275 that OWWA used to collect from departing OFWs with contracts processed through the POEA.

This fee is collected at the POEA together with the processing fee of P 200 and Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) coverage of P900, Baldoz said.

Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. on Wednesday demanded an explanation from the POEA on what he considered as overcharging of the OWWA membership fee.

Villar filed Resolution 247 for the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development to conduct an inquiry into the reported excessive collection of processing fees from OFWs.

The senator’s move followed calls from a recruitment leader for reduction of the fees charged on OFWs.

Lito Soriano, former president of Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. (PASEI), said recruitment agencies have borne the brunt of this overcharging, noting a provision of the law requiring the employer to pay the fee.

In most cases, he said, the workers end up paying the fee.

Upon learning of the decision OWWA board decision, Soriano appealed to the POEA to implement the reduced fee immediately.

Soriano said this is anomalous, noting that more than 100,000 OFWs have come home for the Christmas holidays and they are required to secure OECs (overseas employment certificates) from the POEA prior to their return to their jobsites abroad.
“This translates to P25 million pesos that will again flow into the coffers of the government and short-changing our OFWs of P250 pesos for each contract processed by the POEA," Soriano insisted.

“They should reconsider for the sake of our workers who toiled all year and are here to spend their precious dollars at the same time shoring up the dollar remittances for the country," he added. - Marie Neri, GMANews.TV

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