By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:27:00 02/04/2010
Filed Under: Overseas Employment, Insurance (Housing), Laws
MANILA, Philippines -- An alliance of overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East questioned the Philippine government’s decision, on Thursday, to include all OFWs from mandatory coverage in the Home Development Mutual (Pag-IBIG) Fund.
Calling the compulsory membership a bad pre-Valentine’s Day gift, Migrante-Middle East said contributions to the Pag-IBIG should remain voluntary among OFWs, adding that OFWs should just be allowed to apply for housing loans from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, to which they have been contributing US$35 annually.
“OFWs should not be likened to a ‘deep well’ of funds; Pag-IBIG compulsory membership is an additional burden passed on to OFWs and their dependents,” Migrante-Mideast regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona, based in Saudi Arabia, said in a statement.
The compulsory Pag-IBIG membership for OFWs was provided by Republic Act No. 9679 or the Home Development Mutual Fund Law of 2009, enacted in 2009. Pag-IBIG came out with the guidelines on the implementation of the law at the beginning of this month.
“Congressmen and administration officials probably think OFWs are an ‘exhaust valve’ of money. They wrongly conceived that OFWs are earning much, and that it’s okay to impose additional government exactions,” Monterona lamented.
In opposing the new law, Monterona cited an exisiting Pag-IBIG Overseas Program, a voluntary savings program aiming to provide OFWs, immigrants and naturalized citizens the opportunity to save for their future and the chance to avail of a housing loan of as much as P2 million.
“Voluntary, not compulsory, membership to PAG-IBIG would give leeway to OFW families to choose between getting a housing loan or simply build their own home at low cost,” Monterona explained.
He added that majority of the OFWs have been working as domestic helpers and construction workers or in the service sector.
“They only receive meager salaries ranging from $250 to $400 (between P10,250 to P16,400), not even enough for their families back home,” Monterona said.
OFWs already have their own OWWA fund, where OFWs are required to pay US$25 each on a yearly basis to maintain their memberships with the OWWA, presumably so that an OFW can avail OWWA welfare programs and benefits.
“Unfortunately, the OWWA fund, amounting now to an estimated P12 billion held in trust in the government through OWWA diminished its welfare programs and benefits to OFWs and families when OWWA passed the anti-OFW OWWA Omnibus Policies in 2002,” Monterona averred.
Monterona said the OWWA fund reached P12 billion, and a portion of it could be set aside for housing loans similar to what the Pag-IBIG fund was intended for.
“To spare the OWWA fund the possible misuse in politics, it should be converted to a more meaningful and easy-to-avail housing loan for millions OFWs who are mostly do not have home of their own, including me,” Monterona added.
He said the government should show political will by prioritizing OFWs alongside urban poor folk in the low-cost housing programs.
Monterona said Migrante chapters in the Middle East would stage a protest activities to push for the amendment of RA 9679 and spare OFWs from compulsory membership.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20100204-251311/OFW-group-opposes-compulsory-Pag-IBIG-membership
