House panel cuts short DMW budget hearing amid grief over Ople’s passing By LLANESCA T. PANTI, GMA Integrated News

The House appropriations panel on Thursday terminated the deliberations on the proposed P15-billion budget of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) after 20 minutes amid the mourning over the passing of its Secretary, Susan "Toots" Ople. House appropriations panel vice chairperson Janet Garin made the motion to keep the deliberations short, suggesting they forgo the budget presentation so they could immediately wrap up the proceedings. Garin’s motion came after DMW Undersecretary Maria Anthonette Velasco-Allones shed tears as she paid tribute to Ople’s exemplary public service before starting the presentation of DMW’s proposed 2024 budget “at a time of grief.” “All members were furnished a copy of the DMW [budget] presentation, and we are very much aware of the hardships and challenges of the DMW family with the passing of its Secretary, Toots Ople. We move to dispense the budget presentation so we can terminate this [proceedings] early,” Garin said. Velasco-Allones said that while the DMW is grieving, it was also a time to celebrate the life of the late DMW Secretary, who was already heavily involved in assisting OFWs in 2004 when she founded the Blas F. Ople Policy Center. “Thank you for your prayers and consoling thoughts. While it is a time of grief, it is also a time for celebration. We also celebrate the life of Secretary Toots Ople, her public service, the leadership example that she has shown us...a life of service that is marked by probity, compassion, transparency and accountability,” Velasco-Allones said. “It is in this context that it is our great pride to walk you through the proposed 2024 budget of the DMW and [its attached agency] the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration,” she added. The proposed P15.4-billion allocates P3.56 billion to the DMW and P11.98 billion to the OWWA. During the interpellation, House Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas expressed her condolences to the DMW family and did not field questions, instead asking for documentary submission on the agency’s budget utilization, including establishment of its regional offices. 1-Rider party-list Representative Bonifacio Bosita, for his part, only asked how the OWWA turns over assistance to the DMWs. The law creating the DMW was signed into law by then-President Rodrigo Duterte in December 2021. — BM, GMA Integrated News

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