Dubai: A Filipino rights group in the UAE has launched an online petition to junk a controversial remittance draft law that would compel them to send money to their legal dependents or risk non-renewal of their passports.
The Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) Family Party-list, through Representative Roy Seneres, recently filed a draft law in the Philippine Congress stating, “OFWs, whether sea-based or land-based, are required to remit regularly a portion of their foreign exchange earnings to their family or legal dependant recipient.” If approved, the draft law or House Bill 3576, will authorise heads of Philippine missions to withhold passport renewals of “erring OFWs” unless proof of regular remittance is produced.
Seneres, the principal author of the bill, previously served as the Philippine Ambassador to the UAE from 1994 to 1998. He is a seasoned labour official who has been in public service since 1972 before becoming a lawmaker to represent OFWs in 2013.
Rights group Migrante-UAE on Tuesday launched the “Stop Force Remittance Law - Stop HB3576” online petition with change.org to propose the scrapping of the draft law as soon as possible.
“This bill is not favourable to all OFWs and we will make sure that it does not get approved,” Nhel Morona, country representative of Migrante-UAE, told Gulf News.
Morona said his group aims to replicate a similar move by OFW groups in 2012 when a draft law was filed requiring them to pay $50 (Dh184) as contribution to the Emergency Repatriation Fund. The outcry went viral when OFWs signed various online petitions. In a little over a week, the author of the bill withdrew the proposal.
Atty George Terrado, Chief of Staff of Representative Seneres, clarified that the bill was filed in good faith and with legal basis from the Philippine Constitution and Family Code to protect the welfare of families abandoned by OFWS.
“Over the years Congressman Seneres and this office have received numerous complaints of housewives being abandoned financially by their husbands abroad. This bill is only intended for ‘irresponsible OFWs’,” Terrado told Gulf News in a phone interview from Manila.
Terrado did not specify the number of cases they handle but he said the majority of these erring OFWs are from the Middle East.
“Granted there may be OFWs who abandon their families or don’t regularly support them. This is not enough basis to make remittance mandatory for all,” Morona said. In a clarification sent to Gulf News from the lawmaker’s office, it said the proposed law does not ‘mandate’ all OFWs to remit money or submit proof of remittance as a requirement for passport renewal but is limited to erring OFWs. Hence, any OFW who sends money home need not worry.
Morona, however, said there are discrepancies in the draft law and what the officials are saying.
Kenji Solis, representative of PEBA, an online group of 100,000 Filipinos in 72 countries, the majority of whom are from Saudi Arabia and UAE, told Gulf News there should be consultations with OFWs about this draft law as it is full of “loopholes”.
Terrado assured OFWs that the draft law is still in its early stages and is subject to revision based on public hearings with stakeholders in the coming weeks.
In 2013, remittances to the Philippines reached $26 billion (Dh95.42 billion), making it the world’s third-top recipient of remittances, after India and China.
