D’JAY LAZARO, GMANews.TV
09/19/2008 | 05:30 PM MANILA, Philippines — An alliance of overseas Filipino workers' organizations in the Middle East on Friday dared the new chief of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to prove she’s nobody’s lackey and that she can safeguard the welfare fund of overseas Filipino workers.
Migrante-Middle East said Carmelita Dimzon faces big challenges ahead, not just in ensuring the welfare and protection of her clientele — OFWs — but also in resisting politicians who might try to dip their fingers again into the OWWA cookie jar.
John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-ME regional coordinator, said that while the appointment of the OWWA administrator has become political, it is incumbent upon Dimzon to prove that her loyalty belongs to those who put up the welfare fund.
During her oath-taking on Thursday as head of the OWWA, Dimzon promised to be "judicious and transparent" in performing her duties, and to ensure that the welfare fund, variably estimated at P8 billion and P10 billion, would be used for non-political purposes and only for the welfare and protection of OFWs.
The welfare fund is from the $25 membership fee being paid by Filipinos every time they leave the country to work abroad.
Migrante-ME said Dimzon, a career official who was deputy administrator of the Philippine Overseas Welfare Office (POEA) for years until Thursday, could make a difference simply by not following what previous administrations had done in turning the OWWA into a “milking cow."
Migrante said its records of OWWA is replete with anomalous investments and misuse of OFW funds: Among these alleged anomalies were:
• Buyout of Frederick Hotel;
• Loan guarantee to Landoil Resources;
• Transfer of P4-billion OFW Medicare Fund from OWWA to Philippine Health and Insurance Corporation by virtue of a secret issuance of Executive Order 182, devoid of consultations from OFWs as stakeholders of these funds;
• The P260M bogus claims exposed by then OWWA Administrator Virgilio Angelo himself just to justify the OWWA Medicare fund transfer to PhilHealth;
• The unaudited US$293,500 for the Middle East Preparedness Team headed by retired General Roy Cimatu “during the US war of aggression to Iraq where the repatriation of OFWs never took place anyway."
Migrante-ME also urged Dimzon to avoid doing what her predecessors have done in implementing new policies, such as the OWWA Omnibus Policies, without doing consultations with OFW member organizations.
Moreover, it said, Dimzon should conduct a thorough review of the OWWA’s personnel abroad, especially in the Middle East, and yank out the non-performing assets who are not doing much to help distressed OFWs.
Migrante-ME said Dimzon needs to reinvigorate the agency, noting that it cannot even immediately provide the needed airfare tickets for those who are ready for repatriation because they are sick and for humanitarian considerations.
"Our OFWs are not beggars that every time they need assistance from OWWA, they would repeatedly send request but are simply ignored by OWWA welfare officers abroad," Monterona said. - GMANews.TV
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