MIGRANT workers will be coming home by the thousands this month, some of them jobless because of the global recession, but most of them will have to wait long to get relief from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), if they get any at all.
A study conducted by the independent policy advocacy group Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA) found that lack of information and “a confusing and demanding bureaucratic process” deter migrant workers from accessing benefits due them as OWWA members.
At the same time, the Commission on Audit found that there were no clear mechanisms or prescribed time frames for processing claims, so that OWWA members availing of benefits are usually made to wait, in some cases more than a year, before they can get these benefits.
“OFWs needs may be considered urgent and should therefore be attended to with dispatch,” said the COA 2007 Audit Report on the government’s Overseas Workers Welfare Program. “The evident long period of processing claims resulted in the delayed enjoyment of benefits by OFWs.”
In 2006, OWWA collected some P2.5 billion in membership fees from OFWs, up from the previous year’s collection of P1.6 billion. On top of this, OFWs’ remittances in 2006 of more than $12 billion helped sustain the economy.
Yet the CMA and COA reports found that welfare agencies have been slow and stingy in giving back to these workers. Some overseas Filipinos workers seeking assistance, the CMA study found, get turned away because the OWWA usually tells them “the benefits are suspended or no longer available.”
OWWA, however, criticized the CMA study, saying the survey questions were skewed to provide negative conclusions about the agency.
Workers’ benefits
OFWs are entitled to an array of benefits and services, such as a P40,000 loan for family assistance for those returning or waiting for new contracts. Other benefits include livelihood assistance, life insurance, disability and burial benefits, training and scholarship programs.
These benefits are what workers get in exchange for a $25 contribution to OWWA, the primary agency tasked with protecting the welfare of the estimated four million Filipino migrant workers.
Some OWWA memberships are compulsory. Workers are automatically enrolled as part of the processing of their contracts with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and are considered members until their contracts expire. But workers can also join voluntarily by signing up at job sites abroad, their membership good for two years. Employers are also supposed to shoulder the workers’ OWWA contributions.
The CMA study found, however, that many OFWs were unaware of these basic facts about the OWWA. The study also found that a huge percentage of overseas workers have never availed of such benefits, not out of a lack of need but because of a lack of information.
Revisting OWWA
The CMA, which works with government as well civil society organizations, sent out an online questionnaire to workers in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Canada and Europe last July. Four hundred respondents completed the survey.
The findings were made available this month, mainly as part of a campaign to get lawmakers to revisit the OWWA mandate and restructure the agency to make its operations more transparent, its services more responsive to OFWs’ needs.
The study, entitled “The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration: From the Eyes of Selected Overseas Filipino Workers,” covered CMA’s partner organizations and individual migrant workers within its network. The group said the study does not attempt to represent the entire migrant labor sector.
But the OWWA said the CMA sample size was not enough to draw solid conclusions, and that it did not represent the all OFWs.
OWWA statistics show that in 2006 it aided or handled the cases of more than 320,000 migrant workers needing assistance abroad. This is on top of the thousands of migrant workers given airport assistance, medical and rehabilitation services or provided temporary shelter.
Reacting to the COA report, OWWA said that although there is no time frame in processing benefit claims, “priority is given to OFWs/claimants with request to expedite claims on a case-to-case basis.”
OWWA also said processing of life insurance benefits was decentralized in mid-2007, resulting in the quicker distribution of claims.
Lack of personnel
A major problem was the lack of personnel of OWWA and the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO). The shortage of personnel has made services unresponsive to migrant workers’ needs, COA said.
The greatest demand for OWWA or POLO personnel is in the Middle East where there are high concentrations of Filipino workers. At the lowest, in Libya, the ratio of OWWA or POLO staff to migrant workers is one for every 5,712. At the highest, in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, there is only one labor officer for every 100,000 migrant Filipinos.
The COA said the figures reflect a lack of a standard ratio of personnel attending to migrant workers. OWWA said it “recognizes the lack of personnel manning the frontlines overseas,” which is the reason the OWWA board approved the opening of new posts in Canada, Australia and Macau, with other posts still being planned.
Although 87 percent said they were aware that OWWA contributions are mandatory for those whose contracts are processed by POEA, 58 percent said they were unaware that workers could voluntarily join as members. Eighty-three percent were also unaware that employers are supposed to shoulder the costs of OWWA membership.
While 52 percent of CMA respondents said they were aware of the various benefits available to migrant workers, only 26 percent said they availed or used any of these programs.
Among those who said they had not benefited from an OWWA service, majority cited lack of information and procedural obstacles, rather than a lack of need, as reasons for non-availment.
‘Milking cow’
The survey found that migrant workers’ concerns included the use of OWWA funds for purposes other than workers’ benefits.
The study said some respondents voiced the perception that “OWWA does not exist to serve the welfare of OFWs, but rather to serve as a ‘milking cow’ for other corrupt government agencies. Since there were incidents reported that OWWA lent cash capitals to private business groups and corporations, they acquired the impression that some people were using OWWA for their own private interests.”
In February 2004, just a few months before the presidential elections, the Labor Department approved the transfer of P530 million in OWWA medicare funds to Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth). The money was used to dole out free health insurance to indigent Filipinos. During her campaign sorties, Gloria Arroyo gave away free Philhealth cards bearing her picture, each worth P1,200 and valid for a year.
That same year, various groups involved in migrant advocacy work sued the OWWA for promulgating a new set of Omnibus policies without consulting the migrant community. The CMA said the suit raised “serious questions on some of the major provisions of the Omnibus Policies that do not promote the interest of OFWs.” The case is still pending.