OWWA has P8 B in funds for OFWs

Some P8 billion in workers’ funds held in trust by the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) are available for the repatriation of Filipino workers trapped in war-torn Lebanon, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said yesterday.

"The government can use those funds. The law allows it," he told a news forum at the Serye Café in Quezon City.

Meanwhile Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, chairman of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Labor and Employment, said it is the duty of OWWA to fund the evacuation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in case of emergency.

"Where is the P7.6-billion OWWA fund? Why does Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo only allocate P150 million to repatriate our compatriots in Lebanon? I want to have a full accounting of the OWWA fund," Estrada said.

Lagman, who chairs the House committee on overseas workers’ affairs, said under the Migrant Workers Act, OWWA funds could be used for the repatriation of OFWs "in case of war, disaster, and other natural or man-made calamities in their host countries."

Besides OWWA funds, he said the national government has hundreds of millions available for the return of workers trapped by the war in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East.

Lagman was commenting on reports that the government lacks funds to repatriate overseas workers.

On Wednesday night, Ambassador to Lebanon Al Francis Bichara complained to ABS-CBN Middle East bureau chief Dindo Amparo in Beirut that repatriation work has been severely hampered by lack of funds.

Bichara said assurances by administration officials that there was enough money "was all press release." He said the Embassy has been drawing money from its $50,000 budget, representing its income and contingency fund.

The government has so far chartered one plane that brought more than 200 Filipino workers home.

More workers are due to arrive in a few days on a flight paid for by the International Organization for Migration.

Making his own calculations, Lagman said a trapped Lebanon worker would spend $1,200 in fare on a commercial jetliner to return to Manila.

"If we repatriate all 30,000 documented workers in Lebanon using commercial airlines, that would cost the government $36 million or about P1.9 billion," he said.

He added that the cost would double if chartered planes were used "because we will have to pay not only for the trip to Manila but also for their return flight."

Estrada, chairman of the Senate committee on labor, said the chamber is to conduct an inquiry Monday into the efforts of the government to evacuate thousands of Filipinos from Lebanon. — With Marvin Sy, Sheila Crisostomo