Lawmaker scores monopoly of clinics serving OFWs

Zambales Representative Milagros Magsaysay. https://www.congress.gov.ph/

Thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East are being bilked with excessive fees for their medical certificates because of the  “cartel-like operations” of clinics being tolerated by government agencies, according to Zambales Representative Milagros Magsaysay.

Magsaysay identified the Gulf Cooperation Council-Accredited Medical Clinics Association (Gamca) as the “monopolistic provider” of medical certificates sanctioned by the departments of Health, Foreign Affairs and Labor and Employment.

“The continued monopoly of Gamca, which only has clinics in Metro Manila, has caused inconvenience, if not suffering and misery to many OFWs from the Visayas, Mindanao and the Northern Luzon provinces,” said Magsaysay.

Magsaysay said Gamca had been allowed for years to entrench itself as the only group of clinics that could conduct medical examinations of  OFWs which are required for the issuance of work visas by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait.

She said complaints against Gamca for its prohibitive fees and lack of branches outside Metro Manila were made during a recent hearing by the House of Representatives committee on overseas Filipino and migrant workers.

She also said Gamca appeared to have strong backers in the government as it defied Health Undersecretary Alexander Padilla’s order to discontinue its referral system.

“This illegal monopolization of medical certificates, dubbed as a decking or referral system, was supposed to have been abolished as early as a year ago with its prohibition under Republic Act No. 10022 or the Migrant and Overseas Filipino Workers Act,” she said.