Pagbibigay ng agarang tulong sa mga OFW, naisakatuparan ng pamahalaan sa pamamagitan ng Action Fund
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00:00Thousands of overseas Philippine workers are receiving different kinds of help from the government.
00:06This is also in accordance with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s law.
00:10Let's find out what it is in the words of Noel Talacay.
00:16Annabelle's experience in Kuwait became forgotten.
00:21Her story is that she was jailed when she didn't know what her crime was.
00:27Her employer still left her.
00:30This left her with severe trauma.
00:34I was jailed. We were not allowed to go home.
00:39There was a time at night when I was sleeping and crying.
00:44When something was moving, I would wake up.
00:49Kay seemed to be drawn to the hope that her husband would return to the country.
00:57She was a seaman.
00:59They were sailing a ship called the MV Transworld Navigator.
01:05It was a ship of Hutin rebels while they were sailing in the Red Sea.
01:10I wanted to see him immediately, sir.
01:13I wanted to comfort him because he was in so much trauma.
01:18Annabelle and Kay are just a few of our countrymen who were given assistance by the Department of Migrant Workers.
01:27This is in accordance with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s law.
01:31They were immediately given solutions and immediate assistance
01:35to the overseas Filipino workers we need,
01:39along with their families.
01:42This was immediately fulfilled by the Department of Migrant Workers
01:48and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration or OWA
01:52through an action fund given by the President to the government
01:58to provide financial assistance to the OFWs in need.
02:04First of all, there is an action fund.
02:08This year, it's a 2.8 billion action fund.
02:10And on Labor Day, it's the number one directive of our dear President in the DMW
02:15to strengthen the action fund.
02:18This is also in accordance with the help for legal assistance, humanitarian assistance, and medical assistance.
02:26Because of the action fund, for instance, the last time I went to Dubai,
02:30Labor Attaché introduced me to 12 OFWs who were acquitted in various court cases.
02:37They were given a lawyer and they were acquitted in different kinds of cases.
02:42The action fund also helped the children who were born by OFWs abroad.
02:49We have about 120 OFW babies who were born abroad, in Saudi Arabia,
02:58who do not have an identity.
03:00But they were able to get their legal identity and legal papers
03:04and they were able to go home to our beloved country.
03:07According to the DMW data, more than 50,000 OFWs were given legal and labor assistance
03:17and 10,000 were given other financial assistance.
03:21Thousands of OFWs were also helped in the major crises that the world is facing,
03:29such as the Sudan crisis and the state of war between Israel and Hamas.
03:35But essentially, nearly 1,000 OFWs in Sudan and nearly 1,000 in the Israel-Hamas-Lebanon situation were evacuated.
03:49The whole of government services were given.
03:52Our financial package of assistance was given unprecedentedly.
03:57According to CACDAC, more than P50,000 of financial assistance was received by OFWs in Sudan and Israel.
04:07One of the successful projects of the DMW under the administration of Marcus Jr.
04:16is the ONE Repatriation.
04:18According to CACDAC, the repatriation of 900 OFWs per month was done
04:27because OFWs and DMWs joined forces.
04:33Because repatriation, we find, is the most common complaint
04:37or complaint of families who are crying in our offices.
04:43Someone called their relatives and they want to go home.
04:47The situation is not good in terms of, for example, the food or the salary was not given properly.
04:54Some seafarers who became victims of the Houthi rebels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden were also successfully returned to their country.
05:05According to the agency, the assistance will also continue to the Filipinos seafarers
05:11who became victims of the Houthi rebels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden,
05:18where some of them got sick.
05:21In all three cases, we've handheld the families.
05:24We've repatriated those, at least in the two cases that survived.
05:29However, that's it.
05:32That's why, at the DMW, we also spearheaded the effort to declare that area as a war-like area.
05:49We're saying, the seafarers should be given the right to refuse sailing.
05:53There should be maritime escort security forces,
05:56to assess the ship that has a Filipino crew passing through that area.
06:00There should be a risk and threat assessment given to us.
06:04We have prohibited those whose ships have already been attacked
06:10from hiring Filipino workers to board ships that will pass through that route again.
06:15According to Calihim, there are already 78 Filipino seafarers who have filed for the right to refuse sailing.
06:24One of the agencies that is being targeted now,
06:27which is also under the current administration,
06:31is the reintegration of OFWs.
06:35One of the programs of OFWs is to teach them how to spend their salary properly.
06:42They were given financial literacy or education.
06:47They were taught how to do business,
06:49and they were taught how to find a job while in the country,
06:55to help their livelihood,
06:58and they did not return to other countries to work.
07:02We have face-to-face, which generated around 4,500 face-to-face financial literacy and education seminars.
07:12The challenge here is that we make sure that they are properly trained in the field of business.
07:19If this is business, we are also partnering with the private sector here.
07:23This is just a few of the successful and effective programs of the GMW
07:29under the leadership of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
07:34According to CACDACS, they will continue to provide services to OFWs
07:40and will continue to implement their mandate to take care of the welfare and rights
07:47of the so-called new citizens of the country, the overseas Filipino workers.
07:55Noel Talacay for Pambansang TV in Bagong, Philippines.