OWWA to fulfill aid vows for repatriated OFWs

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will fulfill its promises after beleaguered and repatriated workers from Saudi Arabia renewed their protests. The agency is rushing the financial, medical and transportation assistance it promised to over 60 workers, who were repatriated early this year after refusing to work due to the company’s alleged unfair labor practices, OWWA administrator Carmelita Dimzon told GMANews.TV. Earlier, the workers staged a camp-out in front of the OWWA office in Pasay City, which ended only two days after the agency gave in to their demands, such as financial assistance of P10,000, free medical check-up and treatment, and reimbursement of transportation expenses for workers returning to their provinces.(http://www.gmanews.tv/story/185438/ofws-end-owwa-camp-out-in-victory) On Friday, however, the workers trooped back to the agency after they were unable to claim transportation and medical assistance. In a statement, migrants’ rights group Migrante International, said the workers were informed that a priority list will still have to be drawn up for those claiming their transportation assistance. No guidelines were yet issued for workers’ medical check-up and treatment. “We are going back to protest because the OWWA does not have palabra de honor (word of honor). It is not merely inept; it is deliberately making a fool out of us OFWs. They refused to protect us when we were nearly dying abroad. It seems like they want us to die at the doorsteps of this inutile government agency," Joy Flancia, one of the former workers of the firm Annasban Group, earlier said. Flancia cited the case of worker Florabel Blanca, who has been suffering manas or edema since she was repatriated, but could not afford to get medical help. However, Dimzon assured the workers on Monday that the agency is still shouldering the transportation expenses of workers returning to their provinces. She added the guidelines have already been released for the medical assistance, and workers can go to accredited hospitals or clinics as early as Tuesday. “It’s not that we don’t have word of honor. We do have, but our actions are sometimes delayed by requirements that we have to comply with internally," Dimzon said. She added the delays were mainly due to the necessary paperwork for allocating funds for the pledged services. As this developed, Migrante likewise reiterated its call for the scrapping of the OWWA Omnibus Policies, which it said are the root of OWWA’s “neglect" of workers. The Omnibus Policies prescribe, among other things, the termination of a worker’s membership upon expiration of employment contract; restriction of voluntary membership to two years; and selective repatriation of migrant workers. “These policies, which since 2003 have severely restricted the assistance the agency gives to OFWs, have been a convenient excuse for OWWA to turn its back on our workers. It is about time to scrap them," Migrante chair Garry Martinez said. - GMANews.TV