Losing senatorial bet being eyed for top OWWA post - Migrante

MANILA, Philippines — The largest alliance of Filipino migrants’ groups worldwide expressed apprehension on Wednesday over the possible appointment of losing administration senatorial bet Prospero “Butch" Pichay as head of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

Pitchay is reportedly being eyed to fill the post to be vacated by Marianito Roque, who is now secretary of labor and employment.

Connie Bragas-Regalado, chairperson of Migrante International, said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo should “plant Pichay somewhere else" and put someone who has no political baggage at the OWWA’s helm.

Pichay, a former representative of Surigao del Sur province, lost in the 2007 senatorial race despite spending the most during the campaign period.

He was considered a hawk among Arroyo’s allies in the House of Representatives.
Bragas-Regalado said Arroyo should put in the OWWA someone who has a track record of helping overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

“We have seen the billions of OWWA funds raided by pirates within the Arroyo regime…," she said in a press statement.

Regalado recalled that in 2003, her group exposed to the public the illegal transfer of P3.5 billion in OFW funds at the OWWA to the PhilHealth Corporation. Thru Executive Order 182, signed by President Arroyo on February 14, 2003, the transfer was formalized, she said.

However, Regalado maintained that the transfer was “politically motivated, and was intended for the purpose of financing the presidential ambitions of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at migrant workers’ expense."

Three months prior to the President’s signing of EO 182, then PhilHealth President and now Health Secretary Francisco Duque wrote a memorandum to President Arroyo saying that “the proposed transfer will have a significant bearing on the 2004 elections."

Arroyo subsequently distributed PhilHealth cards to communities nationwide in what her critics said was “in furtherance of her re-election." - GMANews.TV

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