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MANILA, Philippines?Even as they fight homesickness, discrimination and abuse abroad, Filipino workers face the prospects of reduced legal assistance from embassies and consulates next year.
Malacañang has significantly cut the Department of Foreign Affairs? (DFA) budget for 2011, and consequently, its allocation for assistance to Filipino nationals, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said Wednesday.
Romulo told the House appropriations committee that the DFA budget had been reduced by more than 40 percent from P19 billion in 2010 to the proposed P10.98-billion budget for 2011.
While it?s thin as a ?reed,? the secretary said they would make do with the budget to comply with President Aquino?s call for austerity to close the widening budget deficit.
As a result, the department was putting on hold the repair of embassies and consulates, and the re-fleeting of vehicles on hold, he said.
?So if the car breaks down, don?t blame it on us,? Romulo said in jest to the lawmakers, referring to the DFA vehicles that transport senators and congressmen from the airport to their destination in their foreign travels.
Also significantly cut was the budget for the assistance to nationals from P200 million in 2010 to P109.3 million for 2011, which includes repatriation, shipment of remains, medical assistance and psychological intervention, among other things.
The proposed P109.3-million budget is divided into P81.9 million for assistance to nationals, and P27.3 million legal assistance fund.
?The reduction will render posts with higher concentration of OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) vulnerable...,? the DFA said in its presentation.
Minority Leader Edcel Lagman, and Representatives Milagros Magsaysay of Zambales and Carlos Padilla of Nueva Vizcaya said they ?commiserated? with the DFA over their small budget, and pushed for a bigger one.
?Why deny what is rightly due them? We?re calling them our unsung heroes,? Padilla said of the millions of overseas workers looked after by the DFA.
Lagman and Padilla even pointed out to Romulo that the P27.3-million legal assistance fund was much smaller than the P100-million revolving fund required by the Migrant Workers Act.
Lagman said this was a clear violation of the law, and wondered if Romulo would accept such an ?aberration.?
Romulo replied: ?We will do our best to make do with it. We will make representation that the law is complied with. We will insist that it?s complied with.?
