OWWA seeks P9.2-billion funds as OFW hosting cost rises

THE Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) is now seeking an additional P9.2 billion to cover its mounting expenses to provide quarantine accommodations for returning overseas Filipino workers (OFW) due to a new testing protocol.

Despite this fund concern, Owwa gave assurances that its trust fund for its OFW members will remain untouched.

In an online press briefing on Wednesday, Owwa Administrator Hans Cacdac disclosed they already submitted the fund request to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) since they have nearly exhausted their P6.2-billion funds under the 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA) allocated for hotel, transport and food expenses of OFWs.

“We project by April or May, we [shall have] already exhausted the 2021 budget of P6.2 billion…. Currently we still have some remaining funds but we are already looking forward,” Cacdac said.

New protocol

He explained the fund was depleted faster than expected after the government implemented a new policy in January imposing a five-day waiting period for travelers before they could undergo reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

Before this policy, travelers, including repatriated OFWs, were tested immediately upon their arrival.

During that time, Owwa only had to provide quarantine accommodation for returning OFWs for one to two days. If they test negative for Covid-19, they are promptly sent home.

However, with the new policy, Cacdac said they now have to host the OFWs for at least six days—a costly setup for Owwa since its maximum accommodation expense—including food—per OFWs is P3,000 per night.

With about 10,000 OFWs now availing of quarantine accommodations from Owwa, Cacdac estimated this is costing them some P30 million per night.

Trust fund protection

Owwa hopes the DBM will grant the supplemental funds it sought, especially since another 80,000 to 100,000 pandemic-affected OFWs are expected to return this year.

Since 2020 when the pandemic began, a total of 470,000 OFWs have been repatriated by the government.

On a positive note, Cacdac said they observed more OFWs are also coming back for a vacation.

“This is a good sign since this means their work [abroad] has resumed or stabilized, and they could now afford the luxury of taking a vacation and seeing their loved ones here in the Philippines,” Cacdac said.

Cacdac also guaranteed that the P18.4-billion Owwa trust fund will remain untouched and won’t be used to cover rising expenses.

Since the onset of the pandemic, which disrupted the deployment of thousands of OFWs, Owwa’s revenue from membership fees dropped by 60 percent.

Nevertheless, Cacdac is confident their trust fund will now be sustainable, especially since the national government started shouldering the accommodation, food and transportation expenses of OFWs.

“Currently we are not in the red and we have managed to balance out funds due to the large [fund] assistance from the national government. So we don’t see the depletion [of our trust] fund,” Cacdac said.