Senate President Franklin Drilon yesterday deplored that the P150-million fund allocated by President Arroyo to evacuate Filipinos in the war-torn Lebanon was “woefully inadequate,” which, according to the lawmaker, “merely reflected Malacañang’s ‘patronizing attitude’ toward overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).”
He noted that while the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) currently has cash reserves amounting to a whopping P7.6 billion, Malacañang allocated only P150 million which can cover the evacuation of only 1,500 workers despite Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) statement that a significant number of the estimated 30,000 Filipinos in Lebanon are already housed in Philippine government-run shelters or in churches.
“The problem is that there are over 30,000 Filipinos who are in harm’s way in Lebanon,” he stressed, adding “the government’s response to this Lebanon crisis is woefully inadequate.”
On Thursday, Mrs. Arroyo ordered the release of P150 million for the Filipinos evacuation from Lebanon, even as she urged the international community to help evacuate the OFWs.
The President came under fire for failing to do enough to help Filipinos stuck in the war zone, many of whom are female domestic workers.
Drilon urged Malacañang not to be “stingy” in the use of OWWA funds, noting that the agency was created precisely to assist OFWs.
He also took exception to Malacañang’s appeal to foreign governments to help accommodate Filipino workers in their respective evacuation plans.
“Given that we have billions of pesos in OWWA funds, I don’t believe it was necessary to sacrifice our national pride by pleading with other countries to accommodate our distressed OFWs. This is pathetic,” he said.
This is not the time to dick around, Mrs. Arroyo.
From the Inquirer:
“WHERE have the OFWs’ billions of pesos in remittances gone?”
Fr. Agustin Advincula, the only Filipino Catholic priest in Lebanon, raised this question as a second batch of more than 100 overseas Filipino workers joined a massive international exodus of thousands of tired, frightened refugees out of Lebanon. Some foreigners fainted in the blazing summer sun as crowds waited for ships to take them away.
The Philippine government has admitted it does not have sufficient resources to implement an immediate evacuation of thousands of OFWs, in contrast to the modern transportation facilities other countries are using to pluck their nationals out of Lebanon.
“I don’t think our resources are scarce. I think it’s more a matter of how the government uses these resources,” Advincula said in an overseas phone interview Thursday night.
OFW remittances in 2005 amounted to $12.3 billion, including money sent through informal channels.
Advincula, who runs the Church of the Miraculous Medal in Beirut, where Filipinos had sought refuge before leaving the country, said there were many fees collected from OFWs and at the very least, the funds should be used to assist those wanting to escape the war and go home.
Advincula said a lukewarm government response would be unacceptable to other nationalities.
“In other countries, it’s the government that is scared of its citizens. They don’t want to be accused by their citizens of not helping them. Whatever happens, they are the responsibility of their governments,” the priest said.
More from the Tribune: Gloria dumps talk on Beirut OFW crisis, attends AFP rites
When it comes to a presidential choice of attendance between the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ turnover rites for its chief of staff and attending personally to the problems being faced by Filipino workers in war-torn Lebanon, it is the military’s change of leadership that comes first with President Arroyo, who relies on the AFP leadership for her political survival.
The President yesterday not only snubbed the 108th Foundation Day celebration of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) but even dumped her scheduled teleconference with Philippine envoys in the Middle East who would have reported directly to her on the Lebanon crisis and a bigger Middle East perspective, along with the plight of the overseas workers who are caught in the crossfire between Israel and the Hezbollah guerrillas in war-torn Lebanon.
It's obvious that our OFWs in lebanon is one of her top priorities... NOT!
Sabi ni Helga:
Have you read the Inquirer yet? Fr. Advincula, the only Filipino priest in Beirut, along with outgoing Sentate President Drilon decry the lame efforts of the government regarding the stranded and frightened OFWs in Lebanon. It is clear that this administration really doesn't give two centavos for the millions of OFWs that are keeping this economy afloat. Want proof? Read the Tribune.
We are in real trouble when our economy depends on other economies to keep it alive through OFW remittances. We are in even more trouble when this regime concentrates on its survival and not the survival of our people. And we will get ourselves into deeper trouble if we do nothing about all that.
It's her administration's policy to keep sending Filipinos overseas to work and then claim she's "created jobs" for them abroad. and then use fuzzy math to produce a lower unemployment rate in order to fool the public.
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