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Monday, August 07, 2006
Government owes workers agency P200 million: chief
THE National Government has unsettled debt since 1982 to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) amounting to nearly P200 million, Owwa Administrator Marianito Roque said on Sunday.
Roque issued the statement after lawmakers demanded an accounting of the P8-billion workers welfare fund amid allegations of anomaly in the use of the money in the evacuation and repatriation of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) stranded in the war-torn Lebanon.
"When the Owwa secretariat was formed, the fund was then reconciled and the money were collected to three agencies handling the overseas employment program but based on the collection and bank deposits, there was still unpaid P17 million since 1982," he said.
He explained that prior to the creation of the Owwa secretariat, the National Seaman's Board (NSB), the Bureau of Employment Services (BES), and the Tourism Development Board (TDB) had been managing the collection of membership fees.
According to him, the P17-million debt was different from the P155 million which the National Government incurred for the past 10 years in repatriating distressed OFWs.
Under the Migrant Workers Act of 1995, the workers agency must allocate a P100-million emergency repatriation fund (ERF) to finance the evacuation and repatriation of Filipinos stranded in other countries. Congress should replenish the fund as also stated in the law.
But Roque said since the gulf war when they allocated the ERF, Congress failed to allocate funding to replenish the amount used up in bringing home OFWs.
"Under the migrant worker law, there is a P100 million earmarked for the emergency repatriation program. Every year, we must submit a report of what was deducted of the P100 million to Congress for replenishment so that every year, we always have a P100 million basket. But it was not replenished for the past 11 years," he said.
Asked what could be the reason why Congress failed to allot budget for the consumed part of the ERF, Roque said it was not the priority of the lawmakers.
"Because every time we submit to Congress the requested budget for replenishment, it was not acted upon. So now we already released about P155 million for the repatriation of Filipino workers from all over the world," said Roque, adding that had Congress replenished the consumed amount, the government would have no debt to the Owwa. (MSN/Sunnex)
(August 7, 2006 issue)
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