New ‘Illegal’ OWWA Funds Transfer Bared
In the run-up to the
2004 presidential election, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo received
flak from several overseas workers’ groups for the transfer of the
Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Medicare Fund from the Overseas Workers’
Welfare Administration (OWWA) to the Philippine Health Insurance
Corporation (PhilHealth). It turns out now that this was not the only
disbursement of OWWA funds that the Arroyo administration made.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN
REMOLLINO and AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat
The overseas workers’
alliance Migrante International has uncovered new evidence proving, the
group says, that the Arroyo administration made more “illegal”
disbursements of funds from the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA)
than the transfer of the agency’s Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Medicare
Fund to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth). OWWA
funds are composed of contributions from OFWs.
This developed as
OFWs in Hong Kong joined Migrante
Sectoral Party (MSP) in calling for the scrapping of the contract
authentication fee and other “illegal collections” by Filipino labor and
airport authorities.
In the run-up to the
2004 presidential election, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo received
flak from several overseas workers’ groups for transferring OWWA funds to
PhilHealth, apparently as response to a Nov. 22, 2002 memorandum from then
PhilHealth president Francisco Duque III (now health secretary) suggesting
the transfer of the said funds. The fund transfer, Duque said in the
memorandum, “will have a significant bearing on (the) 2004 elections.”
President Arroyo
directed the fund transfer under Executive Order No. 182 (signed Feb. 14,
2003). On Feb. 2, 2004, OWWA passed
Resolution No. 005, series of 2004, authorizing the transfer of
P530,382,446 from the Medicare Fund to PhilHealth. EO 392, dated
Dec. 28, 2004, amended EO 182, showing
that a portion of the OWWA Health Insurance Fund is to be transferred to
PhilHealth.
Latest reports show
however that this was not the only disbursement of OWWA funds under the
Arroyo administration.
DoLE-ILAS
In a news conference
in Quezon City Aug. 8, Connie Bragas-Regalado, chair of Migrante, told
reporters that aside from the P530.382 million transferred to PhilHealth,
the Arroyo administration had also disbursed P23.587 million (then
$87,757) in OWWA funds to the International Labor Affairs Service of the
Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE-ILAS) on Oct. 1, 2003.
Bragas-Regalado
showed a copy of an Oct. 30, 2003
memorandum of then acting Labor Secretary Manuel Imson to OWWA
administrator Virgilio Angelo regarding the implementation of OWWA Board
Resolution No. 040, series of 2003. The memo instructed Angelo to “effect
the immediate transfer of the funds from OWWA to DOLE.” The amount, the
memorandum also stated, was for the “overseas allowances” of medical
doctors and social workers.
An April 2, 2004
memorandum by Imson to Angelo also requests the latter to “effect the
immediate transfer” of P23.587 million from the OWWA to the DoLE. The
amount was to be used for support to seven medical officers and eight
social workers.
“The said amounts
were to fund the Overseas Comprehensive Social Service Package (OCSSP) of
the government,” said Bragas-Regalado. “This is not a program of the OWWA.
Therefore sourcing of this funding should not be from OFW trust funds at
the OWWA.”
“It is also an
absurdity (to deploy) seven doctors and eight social workers and (pay)
them allowances drawn from OFW money,” Bragas-Regalado added.
The Migrante chair
said that out of the 15, two doctors and two social workers were sent to
Saudi Arabia; one doctor and one social worker to Hong Kong; one doctor
and two social workers to Kuwait; one doctor and two social workers to the
United Arab Emirates; one doctor each to Bahrain and South Korea; and one
social worker to Taiwan.
She named the medical
officers as: Bernadette Seludo (Hong Kong), Emma Lou Maturan (South
Korea), Angelita Go (Bahrain), Grace Melchor (Kuwait), Jocelyn Pagaran
(Abu Dhabi,
United Arab Emirates),
Federico Alfonso Puente (Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia) and Froilan Jacinto Obillo (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia). The
social workers are Delilah Fuentes (Hong Kong),
Carmen Miñano (Taiwan), Bailano
Salik (Riyadh), Perlita Macapil (Jeddah), Portia Roldan (Abu Dhabi),
Fatima Caminan (Dubai, UAE), Pilar Francisco (Kuwait) and Marilyn Fabian
(Kuwait). They are listed in Imson’s April 2, 2004 memorandum to Angelo.
GMA
poll campaign
Bragas-Regalado said
the doctors and social workers were used for Arroyo’s electoral campaign.
“These doctors and social workers were seen distributing tablets of
paracetamol to OFWs at the start of the campaign period in February 2004,”
she said. “Thus, the illegal disbursements mentioned aided Gloria’s
campaign visibility but did not extend much-needed services to the owners
of the funds: the OFWs and their dependents.”
Migrante
International is calling for a congressional investigation of the matter
and appropriate punishments for all involved, said the Migrante leader.
“Milking cows”
Meanwhile, the MSP
chapter in Hong Kong last week denounced the Arroyo administration for
using OFWs as “milking cows.”
Vicky Casia-Cabantac,
MSP-HK chair, said the HK$212 contract authentication fee charged to
Filipino workers in Hong Kong is illegal and is only another
income-generating scheme of the government.
The authentication
fee was scrapped in October 2002 only to be restored by the DoLE in early
2004. OFWs have been calling for the removal of the fee since Arroyo
became President, Casia-Cabantac said.
Casia-Cabantac
challenged that “if they (DoLE) are really sincere in protecting the
interest of overseas workers, they shall scrap it immediately
notwithstanding their squabble with the DFA.”
Bragas-Regalado also scored the Meet and Assist Service (MAS) of the
Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) at the Ninoy Aquino
International Airport (NAIA). MIAA’s move to charge fees for “special
passenger assistance requests” was allegedly meant to provide passenger
service and generate revenues, and curb the rampant illegal escort service
practiced at the NAIA.
But Bragas-Regalado
said that this “service” is no different from the illegal escort services
that the MIAA uses “as a feeble ‘side-reason’ to justify the premium or
fee.”
“If the airport
administration really intends to serve the plane-riding public, it must
extend all types of assistance without charge,” she said.
Also recently, the
MIAA board of directors moved to double the P100 airport fee charged
domestic passengers starting Sept. 1.
MIAA statistics
showed that domestic passenger traffic from January to December 2004
reached 6.74 million. Of these, 3.59 million queued at the NAIA Terminal
2, while 3.15 million passed through the Manila
Domestic Airport. From these, the
MIAA collected P320.62 million in terminal fees.
From January to June this year, MIAA posted domestic passenger traffic of
3.67 million with P174.35 million in terminal fees.
MSP said the “dubious and burdensome fees” are part of the “crimes” that
the Macapagal-Arroyo has committed against Filipino migrant workers.
Bulatlat
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