Garry Martinez, Migrante International chairperson. Facebook photo
MANILA, Philippines – Despite having more than 10 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) spread all over the world, an OFW group decried the shortage of Philippine posts abroad that would provide the necessary services to them.
“We have a shortage of Philippine posts abroad,” Garry Martinez, Migrante International chairperson said in a statement Monday.
“It is unfortunate that the Aquino administration [closed] embassies and consulates, the very support system of our OFWs abroad, for its so-called austerity measures and at the expense of welfare services for OFWs,” he said.
Migrante International called for a review of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) decision to close 10 foreign posts in May 2012.
The move was announced by DFA secretary Albert del Rosario citing the need to “allocate limited resources to areas of greater need” and to make the Philippine foreign service “smarter, meaner, and leaner.”
The diplomatic posts shuttered by the government were in Saipan, Northern Marianas; Caracas, Venezuela; Barcelona, Spain; Dublin, Ireland; Frankfurt, Germany; Stockholm, Sweden; Bucharest, Romania; Helsinki, Finland; and Havana, Cuba; and the west Pacific island-state of Palau.
Migrante called the closures “insensitive” citing the recent scandals of misuse of public funds.
“Not only is it highly impractical but outright insensitive to the plight of our OFWs when government officials, no less than those in the Executive, are figuring in allegations of misuse and abuse of public funds,” Martinez said.
New consular office
Migrante urged the DFA to open a new consular office in Alberta, Canada saying that the present consular office in Vancouver is unable to service the more than 200,000 to 250,000 Filipinos from western Canada that need services annually.
Alberta province of Canada has over 100,000 permanent and temporary Filipinos, Migrante said.
“Because there is only one Philippine consular office in Vancouver and because of the sheer number of Filipinos who are in need to assistance, basic consular and welfare services remain inaccessible and at a higher cost for Filipinos outside of Vancouver,” Martinez said.
There are 852,401 permanent, temporary, and irregular Filipinos in Canada as of December 2012, according to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas.
Migrante said that OFW remittances from Canada were worth $903 million in 2012 making it among the top six sources of remittances.
RELATED STORIES
DFA to shut down 12 foreign posts
It’s final: DFA to close 10 foreign posts
DFA assures closure of 10 embassies will have ‘minimal’ effect on services