By Hannah Torregoza
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) should use its P20-billion trust fund to help overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic, Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon said on Monday.
Sen. Franklin Drilon
(Facebook / MANILA BULLETIN) Drilon made the call as he urged the government to look into the issues faced by OFWs, noting the OWWA is not doing its best to help them. “We must look into this. The OWWA, in particular, is not doing its best to assist our OFWs,” Drilon said in a statement. “It has P20-B trust fund sitting in banks which it can use to provide livelihood assistance to displaced OFWs,” he stressed. President Duterte has ordered OWWA, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and the Department of Health (DOH) to assist the 24,000 OFWs who had been stranded in Metro Manila for weeks to return to their provinces. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III confirmed that the OFWs would be sent home in three days' time. Bello also claimed that the DOLE already distributed P10,000 worth of cash assistance to close to 86,000 onsite and repatriated OFWs who were affected by the pandemic.
Sen. Franklin Drilon(Facebook / MANILA BULLETIN) Drilon made the call as he urged the government to look into the issues faced by OFWs, noting the OWWA is not doing its best to help them. “We must look into this. The OWWA, in particular, is not doing its best to assist our OFWs,” Drilon said in a statement. “It has P20-B trust fund sitting in banks which it can use to provide livelihood assistance to displaced OFWs,” he stressed. President Duterte has ordered OWWA, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and the Department of Health (DOH) to assist the 24,000 OFWs who had been stranded in Metro Manila for weeks to return to their provinces. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III confirmed that the OFWs would be sent home in three days' time. Bello also claimed that the DOLE already distributed P10,000 worth of cash assistance to close to 86,000 onsite and repatriated OFWs who were affected by the pandemic.