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Organizations of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have consistently
objected to the possible appointment of former congressman Prospero
Pichay as administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare
Administration (OWWA) from the moment that possibility surfaced. The
OFW groups’ objection became louder last week after a Palace
functionary let the proverbial cat out of the bag.
According to a report posted Friday on the
GMANews.TV website, a memorandum bearing the signature of Assistant
Secretary Ma. Lourdes Varona, described as head of Malacañang’s
correspondence office, had endorsed to “Administrator Pichay” an
e-mail from a Filipino community leader in Riyadh requesting a
review of the “pending and aging cases of OFWs” filed in
Philippine embassies, consulates and labor offices in the Middle
East.
OFW leader Rashid Fabricante’s e-mail was
dated August 6 and Varona’s memorandum was dated August 7 and
released August 11.
Interestingly, GMANews.TV noted, at the time
when the memo was issued a screening committee headed by former
labor secretary Patricia Santo Tomas “was just looking into the
‘qualifications’ of the nominees” for OWWA administrator.
After former OWWA administrator Marianito Roque
was designated labor secretary, Albert Valenciano was named
officer-in-charge. As of this writing, Malacañang has yet to
announce that it had indeed replaced Valenciano with Pichay.
Pichay’s possible appointment as OWWA chief
surfaced last month after President Gloria Arroyo named to
government posts three unsuccessful senatorial candidates who ran
under the administration’s Team Unity coalition last year.
Former presidential chief of staff Mike Defensor
was assigned to head a task force that expedited the opening of the
controversial Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Defensor resigned after a few weeks, reportedly following a tiff
with transportation department insiders.
Another loser, former senator Ralph Recto, was
appointed socio-economic planning secretary and director general of
the National and Economic Development Authority (NEDA).
Another former senator, Vicente Sotto 3rd was
named chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board.
Protect OWWA funds
As news of the Palace memo spread, OFW groups
stepped up their campaign to prevent Pichay’s appointment to the
OWWA.
A press statement issued by Pusong Mamon Task
Force (PMTF) and OFW-SOS / Patnubay.com said in part: “To our
fellow migrant workers, let us all be vigilant in protecting the
OWWA funds from misuse. Let us assert our right to participate in
the appointment of the next OWWA administrator. Let us insist on
transparency, integrity, and credibility in this exercise.”
The statement added: “Mr. Pichay is not hiding
his senatorial ambitions for the 2010 elections, and the OWWA may as
well be his reward for unbridled loyalty to the most unpopular
president since 1986.”
The OFW leaders’ apprehensions are not
entirely baseless. They point out that on February 2, 2004, just
months ahead of the general elections that year, then-Labor
Secretary Santo Tomas and then-OWWA Administrator Virgilio Angelo
authorized the transfer P530 million from the OWWA Medicare fund to
PhilHealth.
The fund transfer enabled Mrs. Arroyo to
distribute PhilHealth cards to non-OFWs during her campaign sorties,
the migrant workers’ leaders said.
From every departing OFW, the OWWA collects a
membership fee of $25, or about P1,125. Officials estimate that
membership-fee collections range from P1 million to P3 million
daily. Over the years the OWWA Fund has ballooned to some P10
billion.
The OWWA describes itself as a membership
institution whose programs, projects and services “are geared
toward safeguarding and promoting the welfare and interests” of
OFWs. Members are entitled to insurance and health-care coverage,
education and training, family counseling and “reintegration”
through small loans, among others.
OWWA funds, however, are known to have gone to
projects that have little or no benefit to OFWs.
Vulnerable to misuse
Mention has been made of Mrs. Arroyo’s
distribution of PhilHealth cards—paid for with OFW money—in her
2004 campaign. That was not the first time OWWA resources were
misused, however.
Under an earlier administration, some P500
million were taken from the OWWA fund to build a housing project at
the infamous Smokey Mountain. How many OFWs were awarded units at
the garbage dump-turned-housing project, nobody seems to know for
sure. What was certain was the ease with which then-President Fidel
Ramos was able to draw money from OWWA—without securing the
approval of the fund’s real owners, its OFW members.
OWWA officials later said that the principal of
the Smokey Mountain loan had been repaid by developer Reghis Romero.
However, OWWA has yet to collect P200 million in interest income due
to the loan. That is a huge opportunity loss for the fund’s real
owners, its OFW members.
Responsibility for safeguarding OWWA’s
resources belongs to a board of trustees whose members are not
elected by the fund’s OFW members but appointed by the President.
Without genuine representation, OWWA stakeholders have no say in how
their investments are spent—or misspent.
Having no power to elect their representatives
to the OWWA board of trustees, the fund’s OFW-members have
indicated they would settle for an “insider” or at the very
least, a labor expert who has a good grasp of the overseas
employment situation, as fund administrator.
Yet, even this minimum demand Malacañang seems
not inclined to grant
dansoy26@yahoo.com
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