Jinggoy Estrada to DOLE, OWWA: Ensure alternative livelihood programs for displaced OFWs from Sudan

(GMA NEWS) Senator Jinggoy Estrada on Wednesday called on the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to provide alternative livelihoods to overseas Filipino workers who have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in Sudan.advertisement

“Asahan na natin na karamihan sa mga OFWs na napilitang umuwi ng wala sa oras dahil sa tumitinding kaguluhan sa Sudan ay walang ipon…  Makabubuti siguro na mabahagian sila ng tulong ng gobyerno. May nakalaan tayong pondo para sa mga katulad nilang distressed o displaced OFWs,” Estrada, chairman of the Senate committee on labor and employment, said in a statement.

(Let’s assume that most of the OFWs who were forced to return to the country have no savings. It is better to give them assistance. We have allocations distressed or displaced OFWs.)

According to the lawmaker, there is P431 million appropriated for OWWA’s Balik Pinas, Balik Hanapbuhay Program under the 2023 national budget.

The said program provides a maximum of P20,000 as business capital for active and non-active OWWA members who were displaced or distressed from their jobs.

“May programa ang gobyerno na makakatulong sa mga kagaya nila na nawalan ng trabaho sa ibang bansa at mainam na mabigyan sila ng ng ganitong klase ng ayuda ng sa gayon ay patuloy nilang matustusan ang gastusin ng kanilang pamilya. Sa ganitong paraan, hindi sila daragdag sa bilang ng mga unemployed nating mga kababayan,” Estrada said.

(The government has a program that can help OFWs who are displaced and it is better to give them this kind of assistance so they can provide for their families. With this, the displaced OFWs will not add up to the number of unemployed Filipinos in the country.)

Manila has so far evacuated 50 Filipinos who were trapped in Sudan, mostly abandoned by their employers.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has said there are at least 300 Filipinos in Sudan who sought assistance so they could go back to the Philippines and that 156 of them have complete documents and could be evacuated anytime.

The violence in Sudan erupted between the forces of the two generals who seized power in a 2021 coup: the army chief and his deputy, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. —VAL, GMA Integrated News