$10-B OWWA fund should be used for OFW wellfare, services - OFW group

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MANILA, Philippines - Despite the assurance by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration that it did not misuse the trust funds of overseas Filipinos, a Middle East-based migrants group leader accused the agency of misallocating the funds by not providing sustainable programs and services for OFWs and their families.

In a press statement, Migrante Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said on Friday that OWWA fell short of its constitutionally-mandated task to “affirm labor, local and overseas, as a primary social economic force, and to guarantee the protection of the rights of overseas workers and the promotion of their interests and general well-being."

“Despite this constitutional mandate, OWWA was created as a self-sustaining agency where all its operational costs have been taken from OFWs contribution amounting to US$25 from each OFW and without a single allocation coming from the national government," Monterona said.

He explained that while the OWWA fund is a trust fund, previous administrations, including the Arroyo government, “have attempted and some have succeeded, to divert the use of these funds in a form of investments and creation of task forces presumably to help distressed OFWs abroad during emergency situations and war for OFWs immediate evacuations."

In a statement, OWWA explained that its transfer of the OWWA Medicare Fund to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) in 2005 was mandated by law.

"Only the amount necessary to cover the existing claims as well as the one-year operating expenses and claims processing were transferred," the statement said.

The transfer of the P530-million OWWA Medicare Fund to PhilHealth and the re-channeling of some $87, 757 to the International Labor Affairs Service of the Department of Labor and Employment spurred suspicions that part of the fund was used to support Arroyo's presidential bid in 2004.

The agency noted however that the remaining amount was retained by OWWA and is "used in developing additional programs and services for OFWs, particularly relating to health services."

But Monterona said that OWWA administrator Marianito Roque was inefficient in developing programs that will push for the protection of OFW families.

“Mr. Roque, in his capacity as administrator of OWWA, since he has been in office year 2005, did not secure the OFWs funds from misuse and did not even develop programs and services that will advance OFWs and their families welfare and protection," according to Monterona. - Mark J. Ubalde, GMANews.TV

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