Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts

Volume 2, Number 16              May 26 - June 1,  2002                     Quezon City, Philippines

Migrant Section

House Probe on Misuse of OFW Funds Urged

Migrante International accuses Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas and OWWA Administrator Wilhelm D. Soriano of misusing funds intended for the benefit of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and called for immediate investigation by the House.

By Bulatlat.com

The biggest association of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) this week called for a congressional investigation of the reported misuse of OFW funds by the labor department and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

In a press statement emailed to Bulatlat.com, Poe Gratela, secretary general of Migrante International, said that the congressional investigation should be “immediate and incisive” even as he called for weeding out “corrupt officials” in both agencies.

Gratela cited recent statements by Patricia Sto. Tomas, secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), which tended to confirm Migrante's allegations that irregular transactions using the OWWA funds were committed in the absence of OWWA Board of Resolutions on multi-million peso investments.

"We are enraged at the reconfirmation of our assertions that only one percent of the US$25 OWWA contribution (of every migrant worker) is being used to benefit OFWs, and a big chunk has been devoted to high officials and even fraudulent investment deals that do not benefit overseas Filipinos," Gratela said.

A study conducted by Migrante International affiliate, United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK), revealed that 43 percent of the US$25 "contribution" is allocated for the salaries and other benefits of high government officials, including OWWA Administrator Wilhelm Dabu Soriano and Sto. Tomas, who both sit in the OWWA Board of Trustees, Gratela also said.

“OWWA high officialdom has invested in many shady deals in the past, including P200 million in Landoil Resources and Greater Manila Land Corporations in 1983; and P600 million in Smokey Mountain Participation Certificates in 1995,” he said. “All of these investments did not benefit OFWs.”

The Migrante official urged Representatives Roseller Barinaga and Crispin Beltran of the House committee on labor to file a resolution for the immediate investigation of the matter “with the objective of making heads roll and re-directing the OWWA fund for the OFWs’ benefit."

While Soriano is accountable to OFWs as to how the OWWA fund is spent, Sto. Tomas must also be investigated for her “’labor marketing’” junket trips to sell OFWs dirt cheap in various labor-importing countries," Gratela added.

After travelling to Europe, Sto. Tomas is set to leave for the Middle East before the end of May.

MIGRANTE International vowed to launch protest actions to push for a full audit of the OWWA fund. Bulatlat.com

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