News from home: P10,000 aid for Saudi claimants, ‘anti-seafarer’ provisions in bill

MANILA, Philippines — From the government distributing aid for overseas Filipino workers with unpaid wages from Saudi-based construction companies to the passage of a bill with “anti-seafarer” provisions in the House of Representatives – these were among our headlines and news stories from the past week we think you should know if you’re a Filipino based abroad.

Overseas Filipinos

• OFWs who have unpaid wages from several Saudi Arabia construction companies will get a financial aid worth P10,000 from the Philippine government in the next two weeks.

  The Department of Migrant Workers, its attached agency Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and the Department of Social Welfare and Development will each provide P50 million for the assistance program. Workers are still waiting for the payment of the Saudi government and the DMW said over the weekend that they will hold discussions on the payment this month.

• Migrante International has called out the “anti-seafarer” provisions in the Magna Carta for seafarers bill that the House of Representatives approved on final reading. 

  The coalition noted that it may affect the timely and complete release of monetary awards to seafarers with a labor case as well as the exclusion of fisherfolk from protections given to seafarers.

Work and the economy

• The Philippine Statistics Authority recorded an 8.6% February inflation print, unexpectedly easing from the 8.7% print logged in January. China Banking Corp.’s chief economist expects inflation to be on a downtrend come March. 

  Filipinos are optimistic about the state of the country’s economy. A recent Social Weather Station survey revealed that nearly half or 48% of Filipinos believe that the economy will improve in a year, outnumbering the nine percent of Filipinos who expect worse economic conditions and 33% saying things will remain the same. 

• The country’s unemployment rate went up to 4.8% in January, an increase from the 4.3% seen in December. This means that there were around 2.37 million unemployed Filipinos in January. 

  While the unemployment rate went up when compared with the previous month, the PSA noted that the estimate rate is lower than the 6.4% recorded in January 2022. 

• Jeepney and UV Express operators ended their supposed week-long transport strike on Wednesday last week after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. agreed to look into studying and revising the country’s jeepney phaseout program, which operators and groups said would affect the livelihood of thousands who cannot afford to join the government’s plan of modernizing public transportation. 

Politics and the nation

• The government refuted a United Nations panel report saying that no reparations were made to Filipinas who were sexually abused by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, but said that it will be studying the views of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and will submit a written response.

  On International Women’s Day last week, CEDAW said the Philippines violated the rights of victims of sexual slavery, saying that it failed to provide social support and it also failed to note their suffering.  

• Over a month since Cessna 206 was reported missing and two days since it was located, authorities are now retrieving the remains of the six victims of the plane crash in Isabela. There were five passengers and a pilot – the Philippine Army notes that “difficult terrain” and the thick jungle are affecting retrieval operations. 

• Oil spill from the sunken MT Princess Empress have spread to Oriental Mindoro’s southern towns, leaving 18,000 fishermen’s activities on hold and over 137,000 individuals affected. The leak has already reached the shore of Taytay town in Palawan and slick from the oil spill also reached Antique province. 

  The Department of Social Welfare and Development said over the weekend that it has provided over P10.985-million worth of assistance to affected families. 

  The Senate will be starting an inquiry into the oil spill and its impacts on marine biodiversity and fisheries. 

You can view last week’s rundown here or sign up for the newsletter here.