MANILA, Philippines - Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) administrator Carmelita Baldoz-Dimzon said yesterday that the agency expects to collect P143 million from job recruiters who are supposed to be responsible for the repatriation of at least 6,000 distressed Filipino workers from Libya.
Dimzon said that there were around 9,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have been repatriated from Libya, including 3,000 workers who were assisted and got repatriation funds from their recruiters or employers.
The 6,000 remaining OFWs were repatriated through the efforts of the government that paid an estimated P500 million for the transportation fare of the workers.
She said that out of the P500 million, the recruiters would have to shoulder P143 million.
During a Senate hearing yesterday on the government’s actions and plans for OFWs in crisis, Philippine Association of Service Exporters Inc. (PASEI) president Victor Fernandez Jr. said that the recruiters should not be compelled to shoulder all of the repatriation costs and that a lot of its members would not be able to survive after paying what the government is demanding.
Fernandez admitted that recruiters have a responsibility to take care of the workers they deploy during crisis situations but there should be limits on their liability.
He added that the recruiters could not be asked to provide perpetual coverage to all of their recruits because this would not be fair.
Fernandez explained that there were recruits who have been deployed overseas for six, 10 or even 15 years and who have entered into renegotiated or renewed contracts.
Under Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers Act of 1995, Fernandez said that the recruiters’ obligation to protect their recruits from danger is indefinite, eternal and perpetual.
He said that it would not be possible for the recruiters to shoulder the entire cost of repatriating the recruits, particularly in the case of Libya.
“If the government cannot repatriate or spend for close to half a billion for 6,000 of our people, what more the recruitment agencies,” Fernandez said in Filipino.
Fernandez said that the contracts entered into by the recruits stipulate that the recruiters would shoulder the cost of repatriation under two circumstances: if there is fault on the part of the employer and if the recruit is subjected to abuse in one form or another.
“However, it is also stipulated in the contract that in case of natural calamities, war or civil unrest, it becomes the responsibility of the employer to repatriate the worker,” he said.
Dimzon argued that the other recruitment agencies were able to shoulder the repatriation of some of the 3,000 Filipinos in Libya so there should be no excuse for the other agencies not to fulfill this obligation.
Fernandez said OWWA has yet to collect from the recruitment agencies.
“We will have a hard time complying with the law. We have not violated any law yet. The violation would come once the OWWA and POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Administration) issue the notice of reimbursement,” Fernandez said.
Senate committee on foreign relations chair Loren Legarda said that the PASEI and its members would have to settle its obligations with the government because this is what is provided for under the law.
Fewer OFWs deployed in Saudi
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reported that fewer Filipino household workers were hired in Saudi Arabia over the past several weeks.
POEA chief Carlos Cao Jr. said that the slowdown in the deployment of OFWs in Saudi Arabia was not caused by the ongoing political turmoil in the Middle East, but the Kingdom stopped the Philippine government from enforcing the mandatory processing and verification requirement for Arab employers.
“We are now feeling a slowdown in hiring because of the restriction in the processing and verification (of Saudi employers),” said Cao.
Cao said the POEA is still assessing the data to determine the exact deployment decline or the actual impact of the restriction on the hiring of Filipino household workers.
He said the government of Saudi Arabia sent last March 12 to the Philippine embassy a note verbale, stating that the Philippine government’s requirement for processing and verification of household workers has been stopped until further notice.
Cao said the Saudi government did not state the reason for the imposition of the restriction.
There were reports that the Saudi government imposed the restriction to dramatize their protest against the Philippine government’s $400 minimum monthly salary that Saudi employers should pay Filipino household workers and the requirement for Saudi employers to submit a detailed sketch of their house address before a job order could be approved.
The Philippine government has been implementing the strict requirements since 2006 in an effort to protect Filipino household workers from potential abuse. – With Mayen Jaymalin, AP