OWWA RESOLUTION 99-016 IS GOVERNMENT EXTORTION;

NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Resolution 99-016 is nothing more than legalizing extortion of the Philippine government to the overseas Filipino workers. It is a tax levied upon supposedly tax-exempted Filipino citizens.

The resolution if implemented, will enable the Philippine diplomatic posts (consulates and embassies) abroad to collect an annual US$25.00 OWWA contribution from each overseas Filipino worker in more than 180 countries around the world. This will give the government an extra earning of US$100 million per year if all the 4 million (number according to the conservative estimate of the Philippine government) will be forced to pay.

There is no reason why any overseas Filipino will have to pay this contribution. That is because a large chunk of the OWWA Trust Fund where the collected US$25 contribution goes is allocated for the administrative and operational expenses of the OWWA offices in the Philippines and abroad. These include allowances for all Board of Trustees members, their equipments, office rentals and so on.

Contrary to OWWA’s pronouncements, it does not go towards direct services for overseas Filipinos. Under the OWWA budget allocation, only 11% or P72 million of the P629 million OWWA budget for the year 2000, is allocated for direct services. Even if we include the indirect services and programs, the maximum allocation will only reach 30% of the budget. How can OWWA provide services to the millions of overseas Filipino workers without the sufficient budget for such? Nothing can justify their intention to extort more from the overseas Filipino workers even if they paraded their list of future programs. How can they implement programs without a bigger share of the budget for their implementation?

And while the government is busy collecting fees, the Philippine Labour Attaché to Hong Kong is busy accepting "donations" from the notorious employment/recruitment agencies that their office is supposedly regulating. This will effectively weaken their position to run after unscrupulous employment agencies victimizing foreign domestic helpers. This is an absolute conflict of interest in the part of the Philippine government. Walang delicadeza! (No shame!)

The donation was said to be for the re-opening of the Filipino Workers Resource Centre (FWRC), the centre supposedly providing temporary shelter for Filipinos in distress, that was decommissioned since May 1999 after a Filipina domestic helper, Glenda Giron-Lorio was murdered inside the centre’s vicinity. The government has funds allocated for the operation of the centre. Why solicit from the employment agencies? Where did the money go during the more than one year of the centre’s closure? The opening of this shelter today is long overdue. This should have happened a year ago. The government should be made responsible to hundreds if not thousands of distressed Filipinos who had nowhere to stay since the centre’s closure.

The Estrada government is not changing its attitude of exacting more and more money from the overseas Filipino workers. Just recently, the Philippine consulate in Hong Kong increased their authentication and notarial fees by 25%. This is in response to the Executive Order 197 of the Estrada government instituting a 20% minimum increased of all government fees and charges; locally and abroad. Starting last August 1^st, the Authentication and Notarial fees were both increased from HK$170.00 to HK$212.50. Because of these, the authentication of employment contract of foreign domestic helpers increased from HK$255 to HK$297.50 (Authentication fee $212.50 + Verification fee $85 = $297.50).

With all these issues of government extortion and malpractice, the overseas Filipino workers have nothing to expect from them. It is only through our collective and organized efforts that we can defend our rights and welfare and regain our dignity taken from us by the Estrada government.

NO TO ANNUAL COLLECTION OF OWWA MEMBERSHIP FEES!

SCRAP THE OWWA RESOLUTION (99-016)!

REVOKE EXECUTIVE ORDER 197!

NO TO GOVERNMENT EXACTIONS!