The House of Senate has adopted a proposal for the creation of a P100-million “emergency repatriation fund” in the national budget to be used by the Labor secretary to bring home distressed OFWs next year.
Minority Leader Ralph Recto, however, has challenged administration lawmakers to raise the amount as there are many more “out-of-luck and out-of-cash” Filipino workers abroad waiting to be reunited with their families in the Philippines, reported The Standard.
The P3.35-trillion 2017 national budget is still being hammered out by a House-Senate conference panel that will reconcile the two chambers’ differing provisions, the report said.
The P100-million fund, he reportedly said, should just be “a component of a bigger help fund for OFWs,” which “must reach at least P1.5 billion,” or 300 percent bigger than what Malacañang has proposed for 2017.
For 2017, the Duterte administration has reportedly asked Congress to allocate P50 million, to be lodged under the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment, for OFW repatriation.
This is on top of the P31 million to be set aside by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) for the same purpose.
Over at the Department of Foreign Affairs, its proposed Assistance to Nationals Fund for 2017 is P400 million, the same as this year’s.
Augmenting the DFA’s ATN is the Legal Assistance Fund, which will have a proposed funding of P100 million, the same for 2016.
“That P500 million, that’s the remittance of our countrymen from Hong Kong within four days and five hours. P500 million is also what OFWs in Italy remit to their homeland in just 12 days,” Recto was quoted as saying by The Standard. “Half a billion pesos is our katas ng Saudi in less than 34 hours.”
The 2017 OFW aid fund is “mere four hours’ worth” of all OFW remittances, Recto said, using as basis the $28.48 billion overseas Filipinos sent home last year. “It has grown by 12.3 percent since 2013, but the OFW help fund has remained flat.”
In local currency, last year’s OFW remittances reached P1.3 trillion, or more than a tenth of the Gross Domestic Product, the report said.
