The Philippines will continue to follow up on the settlement of the unpaid salaries of more than 10,000 overseas Filipino workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, said Hans Leo Cacdac, officer in charge of the Department of Migrant Workers.

In an interview yesterday, Cacdac said Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Finance is on board to work on the financial concerns of the OFWs in the oil-rich country.

The ministry was involved in the bilateral resolution of the issue because it would involve the disbursement of funds, Cacdac explained.

"It's just hard to pin down a timeline at this point because the Saudi processes are still continuing," he said.

"In principle, we respect the Saudi processes, and at the same time, we'll continue to persist in terms of coordination and follow-ups with the Saudi government," he added.

In November 2022, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledged to allocate about 2 billion riyals for the unpaid wages of 10,000 overseas Filipino workers employed by construction companies that filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and 2016.

The DMW last March vowed to provide each displaced Filipino worker P10,000 in assistance while they wait for the Saudi government to fulfill its promise.

As of October 2023, there were an estimated 700,000 Filipinos working in Saudi Arabia, making the country the largest employer of overseas Filipino workers in the world.

Filipinos work in a variety of sectors in Saudi Arabia, including construction, healthcare, hospitality, and retail. They are also highly skilled workers in fields such as engineering, medicine and information technology.

This year, the Philippine and Saudi Arabian governments signed a memorandum of understanding to increase the number of Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia to one million in the next two years.

The MoU covers a wide range of areas, including the recruitment and placement of Filipino workers, the training and development of Filipino workers, and the protection of the rights and welfare of Filipino workers.