ACTS-OFW Rep. Aniceto Bertiz III warned overseas Filipino workers against the fake integrated Department of Labor and Employment cards which have been prematurely released.
Bertiz said that they have already filed the resolution to enable the House of Representatives to investigate the iDOLE cards after Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said that there are irregularities to the said cards, reported Manila Standard.
The iDOLE aims to streamline the delivery of government services to OFWs. The iDOLE system allows its users through the OFW ID to access their data in POEA, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Bureau of Immigration (BI), Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
However, Bertiz said that thousands of iDOLE cards which lacked the security features of a real iDOLE card were generated and released.
“This allowed counterfeiters to quickly reproduce phony iDOLE cards that are now being illegally sold to departing OFWs,” Manila Standard quoted Bertiz as saying.
State-run security printer APO Production Unit Inc. has yet to explain why such incident happened.
Bello earlier announced the scrapping of the OFW ID upon discovering that some officials were trying to make money from it.
“Merong nag-alok ng pera para diyan. Pinaghahatian. Sabi ko alam mo, itong iDOLE Card para sa OFW, dapat walang gastos ang gobyerno at dapat walang gastos ang OFW. Kaya kung ganyan ang plano niyo, mabuti pa scrap natin. Which I did,” Bello said.
“Scrap natin ito until we can find a system that will provide an I-DOLE Card to our OFWs at no expense to the government and especially at no expense to our OFWs,” he added.
