Lapid seeks 50-percent postal discount for OFW families

Families of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) will be entitled to a 50-percent discount on postal services if Senator Lito Lapid's bill is passed into law. Senate Bill 2515 seeks to grant immediate family members of OFWs a 50-percent discount on postal services, provided that the mail will be addressed to the relative of the worker or to the country where the worker is deployed. "The grant of postal discount privilege to the immediate family members of (OFWs) can be an effective tool in inspiring the remaining (OFWs) to keep going. The privilege will also serve as a way of showing our gratitude for their heroism," Lapid said in his bill. The measure, however, says the discount will only be extended to the immediate family members of OFWs whose names are registered with or recognized by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA). It likewise says the privilege will cease immediately upon the return to the country of the OFW. SB 2515 says the unathorized use of the discount is punishable by a fine of P5,000. According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), overseas remittances totaled to $10.679 billion from January to July this year, up by $706 million from $9.973 billion during the same period last year. In 2009, remittances grew by 5.6 percent to a new record $17.348 billion from $16.426 billion in 2008, it said. - VVP, GMANews.TV