he Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) has allocated half a billion pesos for over 11,000 stranded overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia, the labor chief said on Wednesday.
"OWWA board appropriated a big amount—big in the sense that it’s half a billion, but small in the sense that only means giving financial assistance to all the affected migrant workers P26,000 each," Secretary Silvestre Bello III said on ANC's Headstart.
Bello said upon the request of the OFWs, P20,000 of the P26,000 will be retained with the OFW and the P6,000 given to the family in the Philippines.
Thousands of OFWs remain in Saudi Arabia after being laid off because they have yet to receive their wages from their employers. Most those who have not received their compensation for the previous six to twelve months are skilled construction workers, said Bello.
Many companies cited falling oil prices as the reason for downsizing, while some also wanted to hire more people who speak their native language. The company involved in the recent collapse at Grand Mosque in Mecca also had to layoff some of its Filipino employees.
Two Filipino labor attaches in Jeddah have been recalled back to Manila, according to Bello, to explain the problems.
"Talagang napaka-problematic yung kanila," he added.
Of the 11,000 workers, however, only 1,000 have expressed intent to go back to the Philippines, said Bello, and authorities are trying to facilitate their return.
"Most of them insist on staying. I can understand, dahil hinintay nila yung sweldo nila. They cannot come home without money. Wala nang trabaho, wala pang pera—that they cannot accept," he said.
Some of the roughly 10,000 OFWs are temporarily sheltered in a building rented by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Saudi Arabia, while others are in makeshift tents, said Bello.
The department, he added, will not force these workers to come home to the Philippines.
"Why should we force them? It’s their right to collect their wages. Malaking halaga yun," he said.
Bello also mentioned that it is President Rodrigo Duterte's long-term plan to encourage Filipinos to stay in the Philippines to work.
"He wants a program that will create jobs for our countrymen so hindi na kailangang pumunta doon," he said, adding that the reality is that there are very limited jobs for all Filipinos in the country.
But in the meantime, he called for a stricter criteria for recruiting agencies in choosing employers and employees to prevent abusive work relations abroad.
"We tell them, ‘you choose the employers, kayong mga local agencies.’ I was talking to them, they were all Arabs, ‘you make sure that the employers that you get, they treat their helpers properly'," he said.
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