To help more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are affected by layoffs, domestic charges and other concerns, the Philippine government has been urged to increase the budget for the national assistance fund for OFWs to around P600 million.
“We have 80 or so consular and diplomatic posts abroad… But we have a lot of areas where we do not have any representation or consular office because of budgetary concerns,” ABS-CBN News quoted Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay as saying during his confirmation hearing at the Senate.
“I am just being confronted with the reality that practically everywhere in the world, there is a Filipino, but we do not have the structure, the mechanism, and the wherewithal to find out where they are and what are their problems because of our limitations,” he added.
Department of Foreign Affairs records showed that there are at least 9 million documented and undocumented OFWs around the world, the report said.
Yasay reportedly said a P480 million budget has been earmarked to fund OFW concerns while another P100 million was allocated for legal assistance services for overseas workers.
These funds are not enough especially if the government decides to commit to paying blood money for Filipino workers who have been sentenced to death, usually in Muslim countries, he was quoted as saying by ABS-CBN News.
“There was one payment of blood money that amounted to more than P50 million… If we address all of the needs of all OFWs, P800 million will not be enough,” he reportedly said.
