Maryknoll priest Fr. Joy Tajonera on Sunday pressed the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) to investigate how funding for welfare shelters in Taiwan has been allocated, after DMW Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said the government spends P5 million annually on OFW shelters in the territory, including NGO-run shelters such as Bahay Ugnayan in Taichung.

Cacdac, in reaction to the TRIBUNE headline story entitled “Taxpayers footing bill for ‘uppity’ OFW hubs,” said: “We spend P5 million annually for OFW shelters in Taiwan. We run our own shelter in Taipei and work with NGOs in Taichung and Kaohsiung.”

“For Hong Kong, we spend around P3 million annually,” Cacdac added.

But Tajonera said support for Bahay Ugnayan — a walk-in migrant center and shelter that has operated for the past 20 years — had diminished under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., prompting him to ask where the funding for such facilities is actually going.

The priest’s remarks came as the DMW, through its team that visited Tajonera and OFWs in Taichung, vowed to initiate reforms, including proper funding for Bahay Ugnayan for distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

The Arroyo, Aquino and Duterte administrations fully supported Bahay Ugnayan, Tajonera said, including funding of $2,500 per month through the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO), something that stopped in 2022 under the Marcos government.

“My meeting with Usec. (Felicitas) Bay on Saturday night was good. Just like what DMW Secretary Hans told me when he called last Wednesday, he promised three things,” Tajonera told DAILY TRIBUNE on Sunday.

“One, he said, whatever problem [we have] here, they will fix it. Two, they want to continue the partnership; and three, they want better communication and dialogue,” Tajonera said.

Tajonera told Usec. Bay that he was puzzled that the present labor attaché in Taiwan, Alejandro Padaen, was not communicating with him since his installation last July 2025 after sending him a letter in November 2025.

In that letter, Padaen stated he would transfer the Ugnayan Training Center in Taipei to the building also housing MECO in December 2025.

Tajonera decried the total lack of consultations by Padaen on the matter .

“I reached out to him several times, but nothing. He just ignored me. And I discussed it with Usec. Bay, telling her that it’s not how you treat your partners,” Tajonera said.

“We are not the enemy. In fact, we are a big help. As if the DMW has a silver platter here in Taiwan with our presence,” he added.

Tajonera said it is not about the money, but the clear disregard by Padaen of the good relationship his ministry helping OFWs has cultivated with all those who headed MECO and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration through two decades.

The training center in Taipei, as well as the one in Taichung, is a long-running partnership between OWWA and Tajonera's ministry, providing OFWs technical skills training in such fields as dressmaking, photography, and computers, among others.

On the other hand, the shelter Bahay Ugnayan in Taichung presently houses 27 OFWs, including eight cancer patients, two undergoing physical therapy for work-related injuries, and others awaiting job placement or the resolution of legal cases.

Usec. Bay and her team visited Bahay Ugnayan on Sunday afternoon to personally check the status of OFWs temporarily seeking refuge there.

Tajonera had asked Secretary Cacdac to look into the fact that the DMW and the Migrant Workers Office (MWO) in Taiwan have been funding a “non-operational” facility in Taipei called the MWO Shelter.

Cacdac’s own post on X regarding the P5 million funding for three Taiwan shelters confirmed this.

“I told Usec. Bay that they have a budget for that Taipei shelter and for the staff and employees, and yet it is non-operational. It only houses two to three OFWs. And yet why is it funded even if it is not fully operational? What is the reason behind it — budget or policy? Supposedly, that’s a government-run shelter,” the priest asked.

Ghost facility?

Further, Tajonera said OFWs do not know that such an MWO Shelter in Taipei exists, as proven when he asked OFW parishioners during a Mass on Sunday.

“I asked them (400 parishioners) if they knew it, but no single hand was raised. Meaning, they do not know it was there. It doesn’t even have a Facebook page or a website,” Tajonera said.

“Why is it hidden? Shouldn’t OFWs know that such a facility exists in times they need assistance or in an emergency? If it is not fully operational, then what for? So it’s just cosmetic?” he asked.

He said labor attaché Padaen, and the previous attaché, know that the MWO Shelter has a budget to operate, prompting the priest to ask: “So, where did the funds go? How can they operate it?”

Moreover, he revealed that the MWO in Taipei is, ironically, sending OFWs to Bahay Ugnayan when the need arises, even if they are running the so-called “non-operational shelter.”

“I never asked for money from them. This is the first time that I challenged them because this new labor attaché (Padaen) is as if I didn’t exist. He should reach out to the community, and he should know who your dialogue partner and partner is,” he said.

Cacdac denied telling this paper that they spent P557 million on distressed OFWs. “I never said we spent P557 million for Taiwan and Hong Kong shelters. I said we helped 557 distressed Taiwan OFWs last year through our Aksyon Fund,” he clarified.

“Impossible for us to spend P557 million in shelters, simply because we do not have that kind of money,” Cacdac added.

DAILY TRIBUNE acknowledges the inadvertent misquote, as the short interview under a less than favorable phone connection did not allow for a thorough discussion and clarificatory questions.

Breakdown of the P5 million

In a subsequent post, Cacdac said the DMW has been giving Bahay Ugnayan $22,000 annually, and that “the Kaohsiung shelter in partnership with Stella Maris” receives $13,000.

At the prevailing exchange rate of P59.29 to $1, the amounts, if true, translate to P1,304,380 for Bahay Ugnayan ($22,000 x P59.29) and P770,770 for the Kaohsiung shelter ($13,000 x P59.29), or a combined P2,075,150 for both.

Fr. Tajonera acknowledged to TRIBUNE receipt of the said amount mentioned by Secretary Cacdac.

But using Cacdac’s stated annual total of P5 million for Taiwan shelters, that would leave roughly P2.92 million for the MWO Shelter in Taipei and related operating costs, a facility which is drawing comparisons to non-existent or barely existing flood control projects.

The difference brought front and center Tajonera’s question on how the funding is being allocated, particularly as he has described the Taipei facility as “non-operational” and virtually unknown to most OFWs in Taiwan.

Global Centers controversy

As to criticisms that questioned the judicious use of public funds with the DMW’s establishment of so-called OWWA OFW Global Centers (one already operational in Hong Kong and another planned in Taiwan, in areas with prohibitive rental costs), Cacdac said: “OFWs and overseas Filipinos sent P2.2 trillion in remittances in 2024, to put things in perspective.”

Some OFWs have called for greater transparency, questioning why taxpayer money should be spent on what the DMW itself describes as community spaces and “dignified venues” for rest and engagement abroad — particularly when these OFW Global Centers are being established in some of the most expensive commercial districts in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The Hong Kong facility is located on the 18th floor of United Center in Admiralty, a central business district where office rents are among the highest in the territory.

Commercial listings for United Center show asking rents ranging roughly from about HKD 25 to HKD 36 per square foot, while broader Admiralty listings place Grade A office rents in a higher band that can reach well above HKD 40 per square foot — costs that, critics argue, raise serious questions about prudence for a facility framed less as an emergency shelter than as a social venue for OFWs during day-offs and holidays.

The center to be established in Taiwan will be in the same building housing the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Neihu District, Taipei.

In Taiwan, a 2025 market report by Cushman & Wakefield placed Taipei’s Grade A office rents at an average of about NT$2,810 per ping per month — with “ping” a common Taiwanese unit of floor area equivalent to roughly 3.3 square meters — and with the premium Xinyi submarket reaching NT$3,480 per ping, figures that underscore the concern that the government is paying a premium for prime office space abroad to house facilities not primarily intended for distressed workers needing immediate accommodation.

Such facilities (shelters) abroad are typically funded under broader budget items such as Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE), support to operations, welfare program operating costs, foreign post operations, and rent or lease lines, leaving “a lot of elbow room for corruption,” according to OFWs interviewed by DAILY TRIBUNE.