The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) will seek supplemental funding from Congress to cover the repatriation expenses for over 2.4-million overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East if the ongoing conflict reaches a “worst-case scenario.”
DMW Secretary Hans Cacdac did not provide an estimate for the repatriation, but said the agency has tapped the Department of Budget and Management for funds.
“We need the funding in a worst-case scenario. We can live with the current budget, with the current level of repatriation requests. However, the question of whether we can handle the worst-case scenario depends on increasing repatriation requests,” Cacdac said during the hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on the government’s response to the Israeli-United States war on Iran.
As of Friday, there were approximately 2,000 repatriation requests from OFWs alone.
Continuing appropriation available
According to Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Patricia Yvonne Caunan, the budget for the Emergency Repatriation Fund (ERF) under this year’s budget is P1.286 billion.
However, the OWWA still has a continuing appropriation of P474 million from the previous year, bringing the total available funds to P1.76 billion.
“But Mr. Chair, it’s already March, it is already being used. We already have around 15 percent utilization, so it is only around P1.5 billion,” Caunan told the committee.
Due to the widening conflict in the Middle East, which has caused a spike in transportation and accommodation costs, Caunan said they will need more funds to cover all repatriation-related expenses.
She said the estimated per-head repatriation expense was around P135,000 to P140,000 last week, during the early days of the war. But an additional P10,000 per head is expected over the coming days due to price increases in services, bringing the total to P150,000 per head.
The current ERF budget could cover the repatriation of only 10,000 OFWs.