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Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Nearing burial, Gulf War claims issues haunt RP
By Alexis Douglas B. Romero
IT WAS given a second lease at life; yet even as its death is imminent this October, issues surrounding money claims of Filipino workers affected by the Iraq-Kuwait war continues to haunt a government unit.
As the United Nations final deadline nears for the Philippine Government to finally compensate victims of the 1990 Gulf War, critics of the Philippine Claims and Compensation Committee remain suspicious that something is amiss in the committee's operations.
"Deliberate" was how claimant Freda Contreras phrased the delay in informing Filipino workers and/or their families that they can still get money even as committee officials told her otherwise.
Officials of the committee, which is responsible for releasing UN money, are adamant there was nothing irregular about the processes of finding out who should and should not receive cash.
"The DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) did not neglect its duty in informing the claimants," Michael Lorenzo of the committee secretariat told the OFW Journalism Consortium.
He stands pat on the work of his agency, which is under the DFA, adding that majority of the claimants already filed their claims.
The minority, he added, includes those whose claims were disapproved "because they failed to produce or submit 'sufficient' documents to the committee."
Lorenzo explained that of the 48,000 Filipino workers killed, maimed, or displaced when bombs and bullets flew in labor-receiving countries Iraq and Kuwait 16 years ago, some 46,000 "were able to file claims".
The UN Compensation Commission (UNCC) tapped from a war reparations money pool to compensate migrant workers, depending on the gravity of the strife's impact on their lives. It gave each government six months to satisfy the claims of their respective citizens affected by the war.
It suspends governments that fail to remit the compensations within six months and report the amount distributed within three months.
Some claimants and migrant groups believe the UNCC stopped giving money to the Philippine committee because of such alleged delays in the processing of claims.
The committee appealed and was given a final chance to compensate claimants estimated to be 2,000.
A press release dated May 3 this year from the DFA website however said the UNCC would no longer entertain the Philippine government requests after the Sept. 30, 2006, deadline.
Publish or perish
With a five-month window and a "Philippines only" address for some 817 claimants that could be in any of the country's 7,100 islands, foreign affairs officials decided to upload their names on DFA's website (http://www.dfa.gov.ph).
The committee asked these claimants to establish communications with the secretariat immediately.
Contreras said the move is already too late.
In her blog (http://pinoy-gulfwar-claims.blogspot.com), she wrote: "How can you get your money if you were not notified by the [committee secretariat] of its receipt from the UNCC?"
But Maya Cortina of the 17-year-old Kanlungan Centre Foundation, a non-government group helping families file their claims, believes otherwise.
"It is not yet too late," said Cortina. "The DFA can still find the claimants if it has [the] political will. The government must exert effort and due diligence to locate [them]."
For Cortina's colleague Loida Bernabe however the new deadline came as a surprise.
"[The government] should have notified us about that [deadline] since we are a migrant group," Bernabe said.
"[The committee] should spread the information since [the September 30 deadline] did not even earn a space in ... newspapers".
Contreras wants the committee to bring it further by publishing the names of the 817 claimants in the local newspapers, saying this could help locate them and inform them of their claims.
But Cortina said the move could also bring out unscrupulous individuals who are after the money.
Lorenzo, who is tasked to interview claimants and double check their identities, said even with just the 5-paged portable document format (PDF) file uploaded on the agency's website, claimants have been going to their office.
He claims that some of the 817 people in that file are already processing their claims.
However, Lorenzo said they are not expecting that all the remaining claimants would receive the money.
"We are not sure if we can reach a hundred percent, but 817 claimants are just enough."
He estimates that about 70 percent to 80 percent of the remaining claimants would have filed their claims before the clock ticks to October 1.
According to the DFA, it paid US$0.934 million (roughly P47 million at US$1=P50) to 247 claimants from January to November last year. It added that since 1997, when the committee began distributing the UN fund, it already paid US$156,586,290.93 (worth nearly P8 billion at current exchange rates).
Panic button
Contreras alleges that delays in distributing the money open a window for the committee to earn from interests while the money is deposited in a Philippine bank.
Lorenzo denied this, saying that the money stays with the UNCC and will only reach the committee when they notify the UN body about the approved claims.
He added that it takes three to six months before the committee gets the requested amount.
"The money just pass by our hands," he said.
A March 24, 1994 UNCC provision allows governments to offset their costs of processing claims by deducting a fee from payments made to claimants.
While Cortina doesn't believe the government intended the delays of releasing the claimants' identities, she said she's not discounting possibilities some irregularities may have occurred because of the setback.
"If there is interest, no one should benefit but the claimants. The government must strive to give it to them."
But Lorenzo said the committee has nothing to do with the money, adding the secretariat would even be folded up after the last claim has been processed and served.
The UNCC would also be closed soon after the deadline, according to Lorenzo, and that it is already reducing the number of its staff.
This could make the process of transferring funds slower, he added.
He turned the table and blamed claimants themselves for the delay in the approval of claims.
"They [claimants] must not expect spoon feeding from us. The problem is that the remaining claimants did not give sufficient information about themselves to their employers," Lorenzo said.
He added that some claimants did not take seriously the filling up of forms with others, copying instead data from fellow claimants.
Claimants need to present their passport and travel and other documents they used during the Gulf War to prove they are the rightful owners of the war compensation.
Lorenzo said: "Some claimants go to different organizations or to some mayors. They are then referred to different offices. They should not burden themselves. They should just go directly to us."
But Kanlungan's Cortina believes tapping local government units would hasten the processing of claims.
Bernabe also believes claimants must as well do their part in getting their compensation by reporting to designated offices and following the procedures.
"The issue has dragged on; the deadline has been extended many times. Many OFWs should have claimed already," she said.
Bernabe's words ring true with wars continuing to rage in Middle East countries where an estimated one million Filipinos temporarily work for a living.
For claimants, contact Michael Lorenzo of the PCCCS at (632) 8325303. The committee's office is located at the third floor of the DFA building in Pasay City. The committee said in a press release that it requires claimants to provide information contained in passports like surname, first name and middle name, passport number, place and date of issue of passport, name and mailing address of company/employer, contact number and iqama number. Other required information includes present mailing address, telephone number with area code, and contact address of next of kin.
Kanlungan Centre Foundation (contact number 632-9282384) offers advice, Freda Contreras can be emailed at feocon@yahoo.com, and an online discussion on the issue is accessible at pinoy-gulfwar-claims.blogspot.com. (OFW Journalism Consortium Inc./Sunnex)
(September 12, 2006 issue)
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