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As of June, unused proceeds from the verification fee fund stand at P5.9 billion
MANILA, Philippines – With billions of pesos generated from collecting fees to verify employment contracts, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said it is keen to review the mandatory collection that burdens overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
In the House plenary hearing for the proposed 2025 budget of the DMW on Thursday, September 19, DMW budget sponsor Ako Bicol Representative Jil Bongalon said there is still a balance of P5.9 billion in the verification fee fund (VFF).
This accounts for the P4.9 billion collected in 2023, and the P1 billion collected from January to June 2024. In total, it is more than half of the proposed 2025 DMW budget, which is at P7.8 billion.
Bongalon said there was legal basis — though unspecified — that the VFF may be used to fund operations of Migrant Workers Offices or MWOs, the DMW’s satellite offices in countries where there are high OFW populations. There are currently 39 MWOs across the globe, and the DMW is looking to set up six more in 2025.
In the budget hearing, Gabriela Representative Arlene Brosas brought up how the verification fees burden OFWs. Her office received a report about OFWs in Taiwan being charged around P2,500 for each contract verification.
Employers are meant to shoulder their employees’ verification fees. However, Bongalon admitted that in reality, some OFWs end up paying the fee themselves since they are the ones physically showing up at Philippine posts to process their papers.
In the Taiwan case that Brosas mentioned, many OFWs shoulder the fee because they are terminated by their employers before their contract ends, leading them to find new employers and undergo the contract verification process again.
“Ang angal ng ating mga OFWs ay sa kanila din kukunin ang pag-o-operate ng MWOs, na supposedly ay it is the government subsidy para doon. Palakihin [natin] ‘yung subsidy ng gobyerno para doon, at hindi gamitin ‘yung verification fee fund na puwede pang magamit sa iba pang pangangailangan ng ating mga OFWs,” Brosas said.
(Our OFWs’ complaint centers on how the operational funds for MWOs are collected from them, but these should supposedly come from government subsidies. We should increase the government subsidies for this, and refrain from using the verification fee fund that could go to OFWs’ other needs.)
“The DMW acknowledges that concern,” Bongalon said. “The DMW will review that policy just to thresh out all the differences about the payment of the verification fee.”
Bongalon added that DMW Secretary Hans Cacdac “agreed” that more funds should be poured into MWO operations.
Using the balance
The DMW initially asked for P140 million to construct six MWOs in Nigeria, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, Norway, and Poland. However, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) only allotted P29 million in the National Expenditure Program, which may only allow for the construction of one new MWO.
BH Representative Bernadette Herrera said that since there was a P5.9-billion balance in the VFF, it should be used to make up for the funds needed to construct the other five MWOs. She appealed to the DBM to release the needed funds.
“Maliit lang po ang P140 million out of the P5.9-billion verification fees para ipatayo ang MWOs para sa ating mga OFWs na milyon-milyon na tumutulong sa ating bansa. Bigyan po natin sila ng karampatang suporta,” said Herrera.
(P140 million is small out of the P5.9-billion verification fees to construct the MWOs for the millions of OFWs helping our country. We should give them the support they deserve.)
The DMW budget hearing was terminated after almost three hours of plenary interpellations on Thursday. – Rappler.com
