DOJ: Aksyon Fund is for all OFWs

MANILA, Philippines — Overseas Filipino workers, not just Filipinos stationed in Migrant Workers Offices abroad, should benefit from the Aksyon Fund, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The financial assistance “comes without restriction or qualification” and the term OFW “encompasses even those who have not yet left the country, regardless of status,” according to a legal opinion issued by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.

Interpreting the law in a manner that limits the fund’s availability to OFWs at foreign service posts or abroad “would defeat the fundamental purpose for which the fund was established,” Remulla said.

The Aksyon Fund, or Agarang Kalinga at Saklolo para sa mga OFW na Nangangailangan, provides legal, medical, financial and other forms of assistance to OFWs.

This aid includes “repatriation, shipment of remains, evacuation, rescue and other analogous help or intervention to protect the rights of Filipino nationals.”

Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac sought the legal opinion amid distressed OFWs’ limited access to the fund.

Remulla pointed out that Republic Act 11641, or the Department of Migrant Workers Act, grants Cacdac the authority to determine the scope of assistance and criteria for accessing the Aksyon Fund.