Department of Labor and Employment secretary Silvestre Bello III expressed his intention to have OFW IDs approved as temporary substitute for lost passports of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Bello said he would request foreign affairs secretary Alan Peter Cayetano to approve the alternate use of the OFW card, which was recently dubbed as “wallet filler” by ACTS-OFW partylist representative Aniceto “John” Bertiz III.
“Pwedeng gamiting temporary passport, of course in coordination with DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs). Minsan kasi ang ating mga kababayan abroad, nawawala nila yung kanilang passport. This will serve as their temporary passport. For approval ‘yan ng DFA,” Bello said in an interview with DZMM.
Bello also explained the reason behind the scrapping of the OFW ID. He said some online users offered OFWs the ID in exchange of payment.
“Libre po ‘yun. Kaya nga po namin hininto. Kumakalat yung mga tanong-tanong sa akin na ‘Sir akala namin libre. Bat may naniningil,” Bello said.
Bello, however, clarified that those who were able to receive their IDs before the scrapping of the program are still eligible to its privileges.
Earlier, Bertiz questioned the alleged collection of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) of Php720 from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who would like to receive their OFW IDs.
Bertiz added that the IDs are only “wallet fillers” since they are not readable by machines.
