OVERSEAS Filipino workers (OFW) complain about a lot of things: maltreatment, non-payment of wages and contract violations, among others.

But the top complaint received by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) is the non-remittance of financial support by OFWs to their families.

"Matod Pa Sa Lola ni Noy Kulas." Join the story-writing contest on Cebuano folklore and win prizes.

This made up more than one-third or 240 of the cases the Owwa 7 received from Jan. 1, 2006 to June 30, 2008.

On the surface, the problem is non-remittance, said Owwa 7 Officer-in-Charge Mae Codilla. But usually this is a manifestation of other “hidden problems,” like a conflict in the relationship of the couple, or the OFW having vices or another family already.

When the OFWs stop responding to their text messages, the wives troop to the Owwa 7 for help in locating their “missing” husbands.

Contact tracing

“Some families don’t know the complete address of their loved ones—or even their employers’ company addresses,” Codilla said, so Owwa 7 does the tracing of the OFWs’ whereabouts for them.

It then sends a letter to the OFW reminding him to send financial support to his family.

Only half of the OFWs respond, she said, some by promising to resume support, others by explaining the reason for their non-remittance, such as that an annulment had already been filed.

Through its network of chaplains, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (CBCP-Ecmi) also helps wives locate OFW husbands who have stopped communicating with them.

CBCP-Ecmi Visayas Regional Coordinator Gerry Gonzales said one wife, for instance, learned that her husband working in the United States had already shacked up with an American woman, so she sought his help to locate her husband to ensure that he would at least continue to support their children.

The nongovernment organization Lihok Pilipina has also helped seamen’s wives, 20 of them from July 2008 to May 2009 alone, on similar cases.

Lihok assists by calling the maritime agency to find out when the seaman’s ship will dock. Sometimes, it finds that the seaman has long returned to the Philippines and been playing house with someone else.

Enforcing the law

At the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7, where Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo gives legal counseling on Thursdays to those in need, including spouses looking for OFWs, Carillo said he mediates so the couple can come to an agreement.

“Under the law, husband and wife are supposed to extend support to each other and to their children,” Carillo said. “If the marriage is still existing, the wife can file for support for herself and her children. Otherwise, only the children can be given support.”

Enter the in-laws

When in-laws get into the picture, things get uglier. The DSWD 7 and Lihok Pilipina have seen cases where parents of an OFW report to the OFW that his wife is having an affair, even if this isn’t true.

They do this so the OFW will fight with his wife, or at least stop sending her money, which would have the effect of restoring
to the original level the remittances the parents used to get from the OFW before his wife came along.

Some couples eventually file for annulment or separation of properties, Carillo said.

In 2002, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of migrants Gabriela Rodríguez Pizarro said the rate of separation among Filipino migrant women was “4.4 times higher than the national average.” CTL (Tomorrow: Rich dad, poor dad/From remittances to revenues)