The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) has allocated P25 million to extend financial assistance to its listed members affected by the overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs) deployment ban to Kuwait.
In its Board Resolution 14, series of 2018, the OWWA approved the allocation of funds for the financial assistance it will extend to the target beneficiaries.
“Active members will get a cash assistance of P5,000, while inactive members will get P2,500,” OWWA Administrator Hans J. Cacdac said in a phone interview.
The assistance, he added, cover all OWWA members with Kuwait work visa as of February 12 this year.
The program will continue to take effect as long as there are OFWs affected by the ban.
“Around 5,000 beneficiaries are expected to benefit from the program,” Cacdac said in a text message.
OWWA members who would like to avail themselves of the programs could go or contact the nearest OWWA regional offices in their area, he added.
To recall, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) imposed an OFW deployment to Kuwait last month upon the orders of President Duterte.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said the deployment restriction will only be lifted once the new Philippine-Kuwait bilateral accord is signed by next month and the people who killed Filipino household service workers Joanna Demafelis are held accountable.
The government is currently intensifying its efforts to improve the welfare and working conditions of OFWs in Kuwait after Duterte raised the issue of the increasing deaths of OFWs in the said Arab country.
‘Mandatory provisions’
Meanwhile, President Duterte said he had added some “mandatory provisions” in the final draft agreement between the Philippines and Kuwait to protect OFWs there.
He added this was the reason he arrived late during the 39th commencement exercises for the Philippine National Police Academy’s “Maragtas” Class of 2018.
“Honestly, I was late because we were working on the final draft that will be brought to Kuwait by Secretary Bello and I added some requirements,” he said.
Some mandatory provisions that were added, the President said, were that OFWs should be allowed to sleep at least seven hours a day and that they will be fed with nutritious food.
“[W]e will not allow leftovers to be eaten by our countrymen. Allow them to cook food,” he added.
Duterte, likewise, said that there will be no confiscation of passports by the employers.
He also mentioned that OFWs should also be allowed to go on holidays, among others.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes