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By Nora O. Gamolo, OFW Times Editor
As the country prepared to celebrate
International Women’s Day on Saturday, the Gabriela women’s
partylist demanded a moratorium on the issuance of policies on state
exactions on migrant workers and how the state used these fees and
contributions.
In a privilege speech, Rep. Luz Ilagan, one of
two Gabriela legislators, also suggested that a task force be
created to investigate all policies affecting migrant Filipinos
“to determine if their implementation remains consistent with the
laws and regulations enacted by [Congress].”
“Congressional inquiries should also be held
to determine the extent of corruption in migrant-related government
agencies,” Ilagan added.
Some 70 percent of OFWs are women, according to
the Philippine Overseas and Employment Administration (POEA).
Ilagan said excessive exactions on OFWs violates
Section 36 of R.A. 8042 or the Migrant Workers Act that says “all
fees being charged by any government office on migrant workers shall
remain at their present [1995] levels and the repatriation bond
shall be abolished”.
She noted that March 1 marked the one year
anniversary of the implementation of the new POEA Guidelines on
Household Service Workers, saying that these guidelines have
resulted only in increased hardship for migrant workers.
There are widespread global protests against
Memorandum Circular 04, or the POEA Guidelines on Direct Hiring.
Ilagan cited reports of Migrante International
that stipulations about a no placement fee and a minimum $400 salary
are not being implemented, while abuses against domestic workers
continue unabated.
“The guidelines have served to benefit only
the Arroyo administration as these exact fees from household service
workers compelled to pay to TESDA thousands of pesos in
accreditation and testing fees,” Ilagan said.
Migrante International had launched an
international campaign against MC 04, or the direct hiring
guidelines. Its members’ protests led to its selective
implementation, eventual suspension and exemptions for migrant
workers in white collar, executive positions as ordered by Labor
Secretary Arturo Brion.
Under POEA MC 04, a repatriation bond is also
imposed on foreign employers who want to directly hire Filipino
workers.
OFW groups, however, vowed to continue with
their call for the full scrapping of the new guidelines on direct
hiring.
Ilagan also suggested that a halt to exactions
imposed on OFWs. Before leaving the country, migrant workers
pay an average of P15,400 in government fees. Included in this
amount are the forced $25 OWWA membership fee, the $100 POEA
processing fee, P900 (more than $22) for Medicare, P650 (more than
$16) for passport, and an assortment of other payments, including
mandatory training and assessment even for domestic workers.
Abroad, migrants also pay for various consular
fees that Ilagan called “often unjust and excessive.” These
include passport renewal fees that differ per country despite the
standard set at $50.
Some consulates even peg their fees charged in
the local currency much higher than the dollar equivalent to squeeze
even more funds from migrant workers. In Korea, for instance, the
Seoul embassy charges OFWs $55 for a passport renewal, but if they
pay in Korean won, the fee is 80,000 won (around $80).
“There was even a time when the Seoul embassy
compelled migrants to pay only in won, so that they could be charged
the higher rate. This practice only ceased when KASAMMA-KO, local
Migrante International member group, protested against it,” said
Ilagan.
From its impositions on OFWs, the Philippine
government has generated the OWWA fund amounting to about P8
billion; a P100 million Emergency Repatriation Fund; and a P100
million Legal Assistance Fund, among others.
These should now be used to repatriate OFWs
facing crisis abroad, but Ilagan alleged these have been mismanaged,
citing claims of migrant workers groups.
In 2004, Migrante International exposed how P530
million was siphoned from the OWWA Medicare Fund to PhilHealth.
Part of the money was reportedly used to pay for
the PhilHealth cards with President Gloria Arroyo’s picture that
were given away during the height of the campaigns for the
presidential elections, a move that critics charged was
“electioneering”, a legal offense under Philippine law.
Migrante also obtained documents illustrating
how Mrs. Arroyo approved the disbursement of more than $200,000 or
approximately P10 million from OWWA to Ambassador Roy Cimatu for the
non-existent “evacuation” of migrant workers from Kuwait during
the Gulf War in 2003. Ambassador Cimatu had earlier requested that
the evacuation funds come from the president’s discretionary fund.
Reportedly, the funds remain “unliquidated,” charged Ilagan.
The migrant workers’ group also charged that
unliquidated disbursements and misappropriation of funds exist at
the POEA and the Department of Foreign Affairs, calling attention to
them during the Senate hearings in 2006 on the evacuation of migrant
workers during the Lebanon Crisis.
Ilagan decried that “migrants approaching
consulates for assistance with repatriation are turned away because
of “lack of funds” – despite the creation of a P100 million
Emergency Repatriation Fund and a P45 million Assistance to
Nationals budget with the Department of Foreign Affairs.”
These funds could now be used to repatriate OFWs
who face maltreatment, especially women OFWs who were subjected to
sexual harassment and rape, and the stranded OFWs and their
families, rather than force OFWs to raise their repatriation money
themselves.
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