The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) allotted its P2.25 billion capital outlay fund to boost the country’s repatriation efforts for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 crisis, said Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr., Wednesday.
Locsin said in a pre-State of the Nation Address forum that the DFA has been shouldering the repatriation of 96,228 OFWs so far. The list of expenses includes plane tickers, immigration penalties, exit visa fees, among others.
“Those repatriates include 41,981 seafarers and 54,247 land-based workers. Most, if not all of them, lost their jobs as economies continue to suffer from COVID-19,” Locsin said.
“When this COVID-19 broke out, the President asked me, do you need more money? [I answered] no, we will work with what we have. We are cancelling all our repairs, retrofitting, capital outlay [spending] in order to use all our money to bring our people home because the President is the President of OFWs,” he added.
Locsin, meanwhile, assured the public that DFA still has standby funds for the emergency supplies, medical assistance, as well as food and accommodation of OFWs at embassies and consulate general offices.
“We will continue the repatriation efforts for as long as there are Filipinos who want to come home,” Locsin said.
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Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Arriola earlier appealed before the House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs as for the additional funds since there was an increase in the department’s expensed due to the continued repatriation of OFWs.
According to Arriola, DFA has repatriated over 86,000 OFWs, of which 21,171 were repatriated in July alone.
“We are hoping to bring home 50,557 by the end of the month,” Arriola said.
Of the over 21,000 OFWs repatriated in July, 14,380 were from the Middle East. The rest were from Asia and the Pacific (2,934), Americas (2,359), Europe (1,478), and Africa (20).
“We have P232 million [left], and that its enough until the end of August. Our spending increased by 72.5%,” Arriola said.
OFWs or so-called “Bagong Bayani” (New Heroes) play a significant role in the economic growth of the country. According to PSA, the total remittance sent by OFWs during the period April to September 2019 was estimated at PhP 211.9 billion. These remittances included cash sent home (PhP 157.9 billion), money brought home (PhP 46.7 billion), and remittance in kind (PhP 7.3 billion).