A MEASURE seeking to provide a charter that will govern the operations and administration of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) has been approved on second reading at the House of Representatives.
House Bill (HB) 4990, to be known as the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Act, provides guidelines on matters concerning the Owwa, its mandate, purposes and objectives, membership, collection of contributions, and availment of benefits and services.
HB 4990, which was defended by House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs Chairman Rep. Walden F. Bello of Akbayan,
substituted HB 156, 2053 and 3254 of Nationalist People’s Coalition representatives Susan Yap of Tarlac and Sherwin Gatchalian of Valenzuela City and Liberal Party Rep. Joseph Gilbert F. Violago of Nueva Ecija, respectively.
Under the measure, Owwa, an attached agency of the Department of Labor and Employment, shall be vested with a special function of developing and implementing welfare programs and services that respond to the needs of its members and their families.
It added that in recognition of the contribution of longtime members to the Owwa Fund, the agency shall develop and implement a program for the grant of rebates or some form of financial assistance to overseas workers who have been members for at least five years and have not availed of any service or benefit from the agency. The measure also provides for the reintegration of migrant workers as one of the core programs of Owwa, and creates the National Reintegration Center for overseas Filipino workers as an
attached agency of Owwa.
The agency shall also grant benefits and services to members, such as repatriation assistance, loan and credit assistance, workers assistance and on-site services, social benefits—death and disability, as well as health-care benefits, educational and training benefits, the bill provides.
It said the Owwa shall maintain a comprehensive database of members to be updated regularly. No Filipino migrant worker shall be denied membership to the Owwa by reason of age, gender, nationality, religious belief, or political opinion or affiliation.
The measure also mandates that Owwa should have sufficient operative budget to support full protection of the overseas workers’ welfare, which shall be reviewed annually by the Owwa Board with emphasis on adequate funding for services and agency efficiency.
The measure creates the Owwa Board of Trustees, a policy-making body composed of 12 members and chaired by the labor secretary. The Owwa Secretariat, the implementing arm of the agency, shall be established with the administrator acting as the CEO and two deputy administrators assisting in the administration and supervision of operations of the agency.
The measure, likewise, establishes
Owwa Fund, a private fund held in trust by the agency and sourced from the sum of the amounts under the management and fiscal administration of the board, including the $25 contributions and other amounts that shall accrue to the fund as fees, investment and interest income.
In accordance with the purpose stipulated in the proposed act, the Owwa Fund shall be managed with full transparency and full public disclosure by the board, the designated trustee, bound by a fiduciary duty to manage with extraordinary diligence and utmost skill, care
and judiciousness.
The Owwa shall ensure an appropriate growth rate in the fund sufficient to sustain the growing needs of members. It shall periodically conduct an inventory of its investment instruments and ensure that they are properly kept at a government bank under a custodianship agreement.