Group urges P-Noy to spare OFW funds from poll campaign

MANILA. Philippines - A migrant workers' rights group on Thursday called on President Benigno Aquino III to spare  the overseas Filipino workers' (OFWs) trust fund from partisan election spending.

Migrante-Middle East made the appeal as the President started to publicly introduce administration’s bet during his recent visit to Cebu.

"We all knew that administration’s candidates especially if the President himself commits to campaign for his bets are in an advantage...It goes without saying that government resources will be used for partisan electoral agenda,"the group's regional coordinator John Monterona said.

Monterona said there had been allegations during former President  Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's time that huge portions of the OFWs trust fund had been spent for partisan electoral purposes.

"We have reasons to worry about in regard to secure the OFWs trust fund from partisan electoral spending," Monterona said.

OFW trust fund, believed to have reached nearly P14.8 billion, is pooled from US$25 OFW membership fee in trust to Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

Monterona cited that Migrante International and former solicitor general Frank Chavez sued  Arroyo before the Department of Justice for allegedly misusing, re-channeling and charging to OWWA funds various projects that had nothing to do with OFWs, among them the supposed evacuation of Filipinos from Iraq, Kuwait and Afganistan in 2003.

Arroyo also reportedly transferred P100 million from OWWA's Livelihood Development Program to the National Livelihood Support Fund under the Office of the President in September 2003.

Arroyo and the other respondents are also accused of electoral fraud, with the release of PhilHealth cards bearing her name and picture as an election campaign tactic during the 2004 elections, Monterona added. - Dennis Carcamo