Senator Raffy Tulfo lambasted the Department of Migrant Workers for making promises to former overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Saudi Arabia.
The statement comes after the Department of Foreign Affairs said that paying the claims of some 14,000 former OFWs in Saudi will be ‘unrealistic’.
Tulfo said that DMW Secretary Susan Toots Ople should have not make premature statements that gave false hopes to OFWs.
“Marami sa ating mga pobreng OFW ang na-excite dahil dito pero hanggang ngayon ay wala pa ring perang sumasayad sa palad nila. Dapat ay magbigay kayo ng time frame,” Tulfo said.
“Dapat kayo na mismo ang magtanong sa kataas-taasan sa Saudi, ‘Pwede po ba kayo magbigay ng araw kung kailan?’ Para ma-pressure din sila dun sa Saudi. That’s the way to do it, to pressure them,” he said.
In his second State of the Nation Address, President Bongbong Marcos said that Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself committed to him “the unpaid salaries and other related claims of some 14,000 OFWs, who have been put out of work in Saudi Arabia during the pandemic, are now being processed.”
