MIGRANT WATCH

Migrante Says DoLE, OWWA Officials Guilty of ‘High-level Corruption'

A migrant’s party-list group demanded a “comprehensive investigation” of top labor officials allegedly involved in “long-running corruption” and the neglect of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) raped and jailed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

By Aubrey SC Makilan
Bulatlat.com

Corruption scandals

The spokesperson of the Migrante Sectoral Party (MSP) charged during a rally last Oct. 9 outside the office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) that the “Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s greed for migrant workers’ welfare funds is part of the double-whammy corruption plaguing migrant workers and their families.”

According to John Monterona, a “comprehensive investigation” should be conducted on at least four corruption scandals which involved OWWA officials this year alone.  

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Monterano said the first scandal occurred in February when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Executive Order (EO) 182 allegedly “aimed to illegally transfer the P4-billion OFW Medicare Fund to PhilHealth, a cash-strapped government entity with a private-commercial mode of operations.”

He revealed that EO 182 is being “re-worked” by presidential appointees Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas, OWWA Adminstrator Virgilio Angelo and PhilHealth CEO Francisco Duque after migrant organizations criticized the move as anomalous.

The second scandal, Monterano said, linked Sto. Tomas’ and Angelo’s names to the fake Medicare claims in OWWA amounting to P50 million.

The third is the alleged ghost evacuation of Filipinos in the Middle East during the US-Iraq war that reportedly cost the country US$253,500. Monterano held liable Ambassador Roy Cimatu, head of the Middle East Preparedness Team (MEPT).

Monterano identified the fourth scandal as the indefinite suspension of various OFW-funded welfare programs by Angelo and that Malacańang has a hand on it.

“We view these moves to illegally suspend welfare programs and transfer billions of pesos of migrant workers’ funds to different agencies for easy access to those who aim to perpetuate themselves in power,” he said. We will not permit the current administration to take away our funds and welfare programs for the benefit of their campaign machinery in next year’s elections.

E-card deception

On Oct. 12, more than 200 E-card applicants at the Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong denounced the reported “deception” of no less than Macapagal-Arroyo.

MSP-Hong Kong chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado said that OWWA personnel issued forms to OFWs without informing them that they were actually for the HK$200 (US$25) OWWA contribution which the Philippine government has been seeking to implement.

OWWA Welfare Officer Pat Bergado told them that the E-card is issued only to “qualified OFWs” and that they have to pay the US$25 OWWA fee first. 

Regalado argued all OFWs should be considered qualified since they have Consulate-authenticated contracts and that the president herself announced the E-card to be free of charge.

“Thus, in Hong Kong, where the contribution is ‘voluntary,’ we are being blackmailed to pay and take away what we won in 1996,” Regalado said.

OWWA contribution was made voluntary in Hong Kong after OFWs fought for it in 1996, making them OWWA members with or without paying for it.

The applicants, upon learning its purpose, tore up the forms and demanded for their free E-cards. The Consulate then called on the Hong Kong police to face the agitated applicants.

Regalado condemned the incident, describing it as a “disrespect to the rights of Filipino nationals to air their grievances to Philippine authorities.”

When the leaders of the organizations demanded a dialogue, Bergado passed them on to Assistant Labor Attache Wilfreda Misterio, who failed to arrive.

Regalado then just handed in a letter signed by 67 OFW groups in Hong Kong airing their concerns, addressed to Sto. Tomas.

The letter contained their demands on what they called “most urgent issues.” The issues were:

• the distribution of OFW E-Card without preconditions;

• refund of payments of those forced to give OWWA contributions for the supposedly free E-card;

• stop the transfer of the OFW Medicare Fund to PhilHealth;

• repeal of Executive Order 182;

• resume the General Financial Assistance Program (GFAP); and,

• the immediate and transparent auditing of the OWWA Fund.

“Martial law”

The Hong Kong OFWs also denounced the Philippine Consulate General’s (PCG) proposal to ban protests around its premises.

They compared the plan, which came out in a Filipino newspaper in Hong Kong, with martial rule, allegedly aimed to suppress their assertion of their right to government services while opposing “various other anomalies hounding the OWWA.”

MSP-Hong Kong learned that the proposal was related to the Oct. 12 incident, which they said was neither a “protest” nor was it “rowdy.” 

“Criminal neglect of duty”

MSP described as “OWWA’s criminal neglect of duty” OWWA’s failure to attend to Grace’s (not her real name) case.

Grace is an Ifugao reportedly abducted and raped by Emirati Khalifa Hassan Khalifa on May 16. After 10 days in the hospital, she was sentenced by the Dubai Misdemeanor Court to two months imprisonment and deportation for intoxication and adultery charges, while Khalifa was freed on bail on Sept. 11.

Monterona said that the Sept. 6 report submitted by Welfare Officer Betty Walkington from Dubai to Angelo and the Grace’s testimony did not match. 

“In the pursuit of justice and the immediate release of Grace, heads must roll in the OWWA, DFA and DOLE,” Monterona said.

Migrante also revealed that the DFA did not even inform UAE diplomatic officials of the case and its intent to actively pursue justice for Grace in a dialogue with UAE Embassy Counsellor Sharif Altayeb in Makati City.

Statistics however show that Grace is just one of the thousands OFWs in distress. Citing DFA records, Migrante said there are more than 2,500 OFWs facing criminal charges, with at least 10 men and 4 women on death row in Saudi Arabia.

There are a total of 1,502 cases of distressed, missing, imprisoned, maltreated, raped, mentally and physically ill OFWs. The number of cases averages at 17 cases a day. Two-hundred twenty-seven death cases were handled in the first quarter of this year alone.

Migrante has been helping in the repatriation of both living and dead migrant workers, aside from attending to cases of contract substitutions and violations.

On the other hand, the group has documented 10 “mysterious OFW deaths,” mostly women, under President Macapagal-Arroyo.

Despite these alarming statistics, Migrante said that the government still wants them to “stay abroad.”  Bulatlat.com

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