Manila: The Philippines has a long list of dreams that have not yet materialised for the sake of nine million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), sources said, adding the government must give back more than what it does to the OFWs who sent $20 billion to relatives in the Philippines in 2011.
The 30-year old Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), an agency of the labour department, has failed to build a hospital dedicated to OFWs and their families, three years after the plan was announced in 2009.
The ambitious project included building one hospital in the National Capital Region (NCR), and another one in northern Luzon’s Cordillera Administrative Region.
But instead of raising funds at the time, OWWA negotiated with the government-run Philippine General Hospital to create a special wing for OFWs.
At the time, Congressman Diosdado Dato Arroyo also filed a bill for the creation of hospital for OFWs, which he called Migrant Workers Hospital.
Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Lito Lapid filed bills, saying that the hospital should give total and comprehensive medical assistance to OFWs.
OWWA also failed in fulfilling its promise to establish a university for OFWs’ children and a housing project for OFWs’ families.
All these dreams must be pursued, said Labour Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz and OWWA Administrator May Dimzon.
Meanwhile, President Benigno Aquino increased from P1 billion to P2 billion (Dh83.3 million to Dh166.6 million) the government’s integration plan for OFWs whose contracts abroad have expired.
OFWs could borrow from P300,000 to P2 million (Dh25,000 to Dh166,666) each to start small agri-business, handicraft production, manufacturing and other family enterprises.
However, the programme has attracted only a small number of 1,314 OFWs, a sign that the government has not yet succeeded in turning OFWs into entrepreneurs.
The government’s loan facility has been releasing pre-departure loans to outgoing OFWs and not to would be entrepreneurs.
It has successfully evacuated OFWs from war-torn countries, making the Philippines a model in taking care of distressed OFWs.
Due to this, the department of foreign affairs (DFA) is now “known as the department with eye bags, it never sleeps,” said Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario.
Both the labour department and OWWA assisted in repatriating 10,000 OFWs and their relatives from Bahrain, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen. The two agencies were also behind the repatriation of Filipinos when earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.
DFA and OWWA brought home 32,000 OFWs in 1989, before Iraq invaded Kuwait in January 1990.
The government has assisted 80 OFWs in death row abroad. But the number is small in comparison with estimates that thousands of OFWs are languishing in death rows abroad.
The government has also helped relatives reunite with 800 seafarers who were held hostage by pirates in Somalia.
After Flor Contemplacion, an overseas domestic helper, was hanged for the killing a compatriot in Singapore in 2002, the labour department created welfare centres adjacent to Philippine Embassies abroad, to take care of OFWs.
OWWA’s overseas welfare centres have become temporary shelters for runaway maids and other OFWs.
OWWA also provides OFWs insurance coverage and social and cultural services.
The nine million OFWs represent 10% of the population in the Philippines. They sent $20 billion to their relatives in 2011.