Nene: Account for OWWA funds, Senate will OK evacuation budget - Malaya 08.05.2006
SENATE minority leader Aquilino Pimentel yesterday said the Senate will pass the supplemental budget for Lebanon repatriation efforts only after the government has fully accounted for the alleged missing funds of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
"It is our obligation to find out what happened not only to the funds that were supposed to be sent to Lebanon, and in general what has happened to the OWWA fund," Pimentel said.
OWWA officials led by its chief, Marianito Roque, have said the funds are intact but Ambassador to Lebanon Al Francis Bicharra has said no OWWA funds were released to speed up the evacuation of OFWs caught in the Lebanon conflict.
Bichara told a Senate panel early this week that only $19,000 was wired by OWWA to its welfare officer in Lebanon in the early days of the conflict.
The Senate resumes its probe Monday.
Pimentel said based on an OWWA audit two years ago, the fund stood at P7.2 billion.
He said that since OWWA continues to collect a $25 fee from every Filipino leaving for work abroad, the fund should have increased to about P10 billion by now.
Pimentel said the Senate is duty-bound to look into allegations that P530 million in OWWA funds have been transferred to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) for the distribution of PhilHealth insurance cards to indigents before the 2004 elections.
He said the transfer was illegal because the OWWA fund is a trust fund for the exclusive use of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). He also said the transfer was illogical because most OFWs are not PhilHealth members.
"And therefore, the OWWA fund cannot be used for any other purposes," he said.
The transfer was allegedly requested by then PhilHealth president now Health Secretary Francisco Duque as early as 2002.
He said Senate deliberations on the P46.9 billion supplemental budget, P500 million of which will go to evacuation work, could not be done "in isolation from the alleged misuse or disappearance of portions of the OWWA fund."
"It does not mean that during the deliberations on the supplemental budget, we will stay quiet about the OWWA fund and how a portion of the fund was diverted to other uses, because to my mind, it is important for a complete understanding of the status of the OWW fund," he said.
The House on Wednesday passed the supplemental budget but senators appeared cool to the proposal.
Roque said the agency still has P387 million left of the P500-million repatriation budget.
He said that since the start of the repatriation operations on July 23, the agency has used P2.3 billion to bring home more than 2,000 OFWs through Damascus, Syria.
A Commission on Audit certificate dated December 2005 showed that OWWA funds stood at P8.77 billion, which was invested in government securities amounting to P6.729 billion.
Roque said the funds they released should be returned by the national government because OWWA funds should be spent only for OWWA members.
Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said the money advanced by OWWA should be reimbursed by national government as 64 percent of those repatriated were non-OWWA members.
"Insofar as the undocumented workers are concerned, we will have a reconciliation of accounts because OWWA funds are for OWWA members. In the meanwhile we will have no quibbling as to the advancement of funds during this time of crisis," he said.
Brion said the safety of the 30,000 Filipinos in Lebanon should be given priority. How the cash advances are to be recovered can be discussed later.
Brion said that while it appears OWWA is shouldering the expenses for the repatriation, the national government is also releasing funds.
He said Malacañang’s release of P150 million and the approval of a supplemental budget by the House are "calibrated responses."
Reps. Marcelino Libanan (Lakas, Eastern Samar) and Ernesto "Bansai" Nieva (LP, Manila), vice chair of the committee on labor and employment, said if senators are apprehensive about the possible misuse of the supplemental fund, lawmakers can put in a provision in the budget measure ordering concerned agencies to submit to Congress an accounting of the evacuation expenses of government.
Libanan said the prompt passage of the P500 million supplemental budget will allow unhampered evacuation of the remaining OFWs in Lebanon.
He said congressmen are expected to pass in plenary next week House Bill 5679 or the P500 million evacuation fund. – Dennis Gadil and Czeriza Valencia
"It is our obligation to find out what happened not only to the funds that were supposed to be sent to Lebanon, and in general what has happened to the OWWA fund," Pimentel said.
OWWA officials led by its chief, Marianito Roque, have said the funds are intact but Ambassador to Lebanon Al Francis Bicharra has said no OWWA funds were released to speed up the evacuation of OFWs caught in the Lebanon conflict.
Bichara told a Senate panel early this week that only $19,000 was wired by OWWA to its welfare officer in Lebanon in the early days of the conflict.
The Senate resumes its probe Monday.
Pimentel said based on an OWWA audit two years ago, the fund stood at P7.2 billion.
He said that since OWWA continues to collect a $25 fee from every Filipino leaving for work abroad, the fund should have increased to about P10 billion by now.
Pimentel said the Senate is duty-bound to look into allegations that P530 million in OWWA funds have been transferred to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) for the distribution of PhilHealth insurance cards to indigents before the 2004 elections.
He said the transfer was illegal because the OWWA fund is a trust fund for the exclusive use of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). He also said the transfer was illogical because most OFWs are not PhilHealth members.
"And therefore, the OWWA fund cannot be used for any other purposes," he said.
The transfer was allegedly requested by then PhilHealth president now Health Secretary Francisco Duque as early as 2002.
He said Senate deliberations on the P46.9 billion supplemental budget, P500 million of which will go to evacuation work, could not be done "in isolation from the alleged misuse or disappearance of portions of the OWWA fund."
"It does not mean that during the deliberations on the supplemental budget, we will stay quiet about the OWWA fund and how a portion of the fund was diverted to other uses, because to my mind, it is important for a complete understanding of the status of the OWW fund," he said.
The House on Wednesday passed the supplemental budget but senators appeared cool to the proposal.
Roque said the agency still has P387 million left of the P500-million repatriation budget.
He said that since the start of the repatriation operations on July 23, the agency has used P2.3 billion to bring home more than 2,000 OFWs through Damascus, Syria.
A Commission on Audit certificate dated December 2005 showed that OWWA funds stood at P8.77 billion, which was invested in government securities amounting to P6.729 billion.
Roque said the funds they released should be returned by the national government because OWWA funds should be spent only for OWWA members.
Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said the money advanced by OWWA should be reimbursed by national government as 64 percent of those repatriated were non-OWWA members.
"Insofar as the undocumented workers are concerned, we will have a reconciliation of accounts because OWWA funds are for OWWA members. In the meanwhile we will have no quibbling as to the advancement of funds during this time of crisis," he said.
Brion said the safety of the 30,000 Filipinos in Lebanon should be given priority. How the cash advances are to be recovered can be discussed later.
Brion said that while it appears OWWA is shouldering the expenses for the repatriation, the national government is also releasing funds.
He said Malacañang’s release of P150 million and the approval of a supplemental budget by the House are "calibrated responses."
Reps. Marcelino Libanan (Lakas, Eastern Samar) and Ernesto "Bansai" Nieva (LP, Manila), vice chair of the committee on labor and employment, said if senators are apprehensive about the possible misuse of the supplemental fund, lawmakers can put in a provision in the budget measure ordering concerned agencies to submit to Congress an accounting of the evacuation expenses of government.
Libanan said the prompt passage of the P500 million supplemental budget will allow unhampered evacuation of the remaining OFWs in Lebanon.
He said congressmen are expected to pass in plenary next week House Bill 5679 or the P500 million evacuation fund. – Dennis Gadil and Czeriza Valencia
posted by brodkaster43 at Sabado, Agosto 05, 2006
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