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Senate approves P100M OFW repatriation fund

The House of Senate has approved a P100-million repatriation fund under the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DoLE) budget to help distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who want to return but don’t have resources.

The Senate has adopted his proposal to create the fund, although he is calling for a bigger P1.5-billion total budget dedicated to helping OFWs in general, Business World quoted Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto as saying.

Last August, hundreds of OFWs lost their jobs in Saudi Arabia and were stranded there until the government assisted in their repatriation, the report said.

To better prepare for such situations, the administration originally allocated P50 million in the DoLE fund for repatriation.

Under the proposed 2017 budget, there is a P580-million allocation for OFWs. This includes the initial P50-million repatriation fund, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration fund of P31 million, the Department of Foreign Affairs’s (DFA) assistance to nationals fund of P400 million, and the DFA’s legal assistance fund of P100 million, said the news portal.

“That P500 million is the same amount of remittances we get from our OFWs in Hong Kong in four days and five hours,” Mr. Recto said. “P500 million is also what OFWs in Italy remit to their homeland in just 12 days… or from Saudi in less than 34 hours,” he added.

Last year’s OFW remittances reached about P1.3 trillion, accounting for about 10 percent of gross domestic product, reported Business World.

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