Filipinos in the UAE praised President Rodrigo Duterte’s move to finally sign an executive order (EO) creating a bank specifically for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) last Oct.9.
Under EO 44, government-owned and -controlled Land Bank of the Philippines acquired the Philippine Postal Savings Bank and converted it into the Overseas Filipino Bank (OFB).
In the Filipino Times’ report, Facebook users were also quick to thank the president in the comments section.
Others expressed their excitement over the news.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III commended the signing of the EO, saying that the finance department “moved quickly to help deliver on the President’s campaign promise to create a financial institution totally dedicated to cater to the needs of all overseas Filipinos”.
On the other hand, militant OFW group Migrante, in a statement, spurned the newly-established bank, saying that it will further exploit OFWs’ cheap labor and high remittances.
“The creation of the OFB is in tune with the Duterte government’s economic thrust of ‘managing migration’ as a ‘tool for development’, a neoliberal prescription that does not in any way address the root causes of forced migration nor even attempt to curb it in the policy-level,” the group said in a statement.
Instead, Migrante said, the government should focus on advancing local industries, agriculture and basic services to address the problem of forced migration.
“It should depart from neoliberal policies which focus on increasing dependence on OFW remittances. Only then can OFWs look forward to a future in which they will not have to leave their families behind just to survive,” the group said.
