THE Overseas Workers Welfare Administration-Cordillera administrative Region (Owwa-CAR) provided a onetime Cash Relief Assistance Program (Care) to a sickly senior citizen from Flora, Apayao, a municipality 431 kilometers away from Baguio City.
The Owwa started releasing in November 2016 the financial assistance to affected Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and families in areas declared under Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal (TCWS) No. 5 by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) that covered Cagayan, Isabela, Kalinga, Apayao, Northern Abra, and Ilocos Norte.
The financial assistance is in line with President Rodrigo Duterte's instructions to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to immediately extend assistance to OFWs and their families who experienced the wrath of Typhoon Lawin.
Under the Owwa Care, a cash assistance worth P3,000 per OFW family is extended to active Owwa members, while non-active members are eligible to receive P1,500 financial aid. In the event, there is more than one OFW in a family, only one OFW member is entitled to receive the monetary assistance.
Meanwhile, during the fourth release of financial assistance to beneficiaries in Flora, Apayao last month, Serafina Baloaloa Malda, 70-year–old sickly senior citizen claimant requested her check be delivered in her home.
The Owwa-CAR team headed by Dina Ponciano, Owwo III, Liezl Felix and Remedios Caceres, Family Welfare Officers together with Public Employment Service Office (Peso), and Migrants Desk Officer Miralyn Cascayan of Flora granted the request and visited her home.
The Owwa Cares beneficiary is the mother of Rufina Baloaloa Malda, an OFW in Hong Kong working as household service worker for the past six years. Malda suffered stroke which prevented her to walk on her own.
OIC regional director Evelyn Laranang said the agency’s vision is to serve the interest and welfare of its member OFWs and dependents truly lived its purpose delivering its services with a heart. A total of 855 beneficiaries out of the 1,025 beneficiaries in Apayao were given the grant totaling to P855,000.
Owwa has allocated P30 million for the Care program in the Cordillera. More than 22,000 applicants from the hardest-hit provinces of Apayao, Kalinga, and Northern Abra applied for the assistance. (PR)