OFW group wants list of government cash aid beneficiaries expanded

A group for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) has asked the government to expand its financial assistance program to cover more Filipino workers displaced by the oil crisis afflicting construction companies in the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia.

Marlon Gatdula of Migrante-KSA Western Region said the government must expand to OFWs whose employers felt the effects of the oil crisis but did not make it to the list made by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

Gatdula said the cash assistance OWWA is offering through its P500 million Relief Assistance Program must not be limited only to its members.

Under OWWA’s Memorandum of Instruction, only OFWs formerly employed by certain companies may claim P20,000 and P6,000 for their families in the Philippines at the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah. However, Migrante wishes to see more employers on the list.

The group also advised OWWA officials in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al-Khobar to immediately visit OFWs at their jobsites to tell them of the financial aid.

The cash aid came a week after Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III checked on the OFWs’ conditions at the camps of Saudi Oger and Saudi bin Laden Group of Companies.

Source: GMA News