Anakalusugan Party-list Rep. Michael Defensor has urged on the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to support the families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) based in Russia.
“The global sanctions are bound to hit Russia’s banking system very hard, possibly obstructing the money transfers of the more than 10,000 Filipino workers there,” Defensor said in a press statement adding that about 95 percent of the OFWs in Russia are employed as household service workers and drivers and are mostly based in Moscow.
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“We are counting on the OWWA to reach out to the families here at home of our workers in Russia, and to provide them temporary financial relief… The financial sanctions, in particular, would effectively block Russian banks from corresponding with virtually all major banks around the world,” he said.
Seven major Russian banks have been cut off from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a system which allows banks to communicate with one another internationally and as of March 4, one Russian ruble has dropped to to about 0.0091 United States Dollars (USD), less than one cent USD.
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Defensor added that the national government should also prepare to repatriate Russia-based OFWs and the ” prospect that some of our workers there might lose their jobs is very real, considering the projections that the Russian economy might plunge into a depression due to the global sanctions.”
