Sen. Cynthia Villar says the assistance being extended to repatriated overseas Filipino workers is a simple way of helping them start anew. INQUIRER.net PHOTO
Five returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia received medical and livelihood assistance after they met with Sen. Cynthia Villar on Tuesday.
The OFWs have been waiting for repatriation for three years as contracting company Mohammad Al Mojil Group (MMG) suffered from financial problems, making it unable to pay the workers’ salaries.
Villar, also the director of Villar Social Institute for Poverty Alleviation and Governance (Villar Sipag), said the OFWs received a startup set for a sari-sari store as well as a referral to the Las Piñas General Hospital “so they can have the proper medical attention they need.”
“The assistance we are extending to distressed OFWs is a simple way of helping them start anew right here at home. I know the loss of jobs coupled with sickness makes it more difficult to provide for their families,” Villar said in a statement.
“We assure you that we will continue to work with the proper government agencies to expedite the repatriation of all the stranded OFWs,” the senator added.
Villar said the five were among the more than 500 OFWs stranded in MMG-operated campsites since 2013. In September last year, she said, four stranded OFWs—Jonathan Basi, Jimmy Wuthrich, Guillermo Recomio and Roque Capistrano—asked her help for the repatriation of the others.
She said she called the attention of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to attend to the needs of the stranded OFWs, especially those in need of medical attention.
Villar noted that the Saudization policy, which was implemented to give priority to Saudi nationals in job hiring, had affected thousands of Filipinos working in the Kingdom.
The falling petroleum prices, she said, also caused Saudi companies to reduce manpower requirements./rga