The decline in the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in 2020 resulted in a 60 percent drop in membership contribution for the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
“There is a 60 percent drop in membership contribution. The [OWWA] fund now stands at P18.4 billion,” OWWA Administrator, Hans Leo Cacdac said in a virtual press briefing over the weekend.
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Cacdac assured members that the state-run overseas workers’ welfare fund is “not in the red” and remains stable primarily through the support from the national government.
“As of now, we manage to balance our fund because of the support of the national government. We were given P5,2 billion last year and for 2021 we were given [by Congress] P6.2 billion,” Cacdac said.
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He added that he doesn’t see any depletion of OWWA fund that includes livelihood program and educational assistance because they balance it and don’t spend the fund for the food, transport, and accommodation of returning OFWs.
In a Senate hearing last year, Cacdac said that the agency’s then P18.79-billion fund is expected to be reduced to P10 billion by the end of 2020, and plunge below P1 billion by the end of 2021 should the OWWA-managed welfare fund be used for the repatriation, hotel accommodation, food and transport of OFWs.
