PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte ordered for the immediate repatriation and support for more than 600 overseas Filipino workers currently stranded in Saudi Arabia, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said Tuesday.
“The problem on Filipinos overseas was discussed. The President stressed that the human side of the situation should be addressed with those stranded but want to go home being repatriated immediately,” Panelo said, relating developments during the last Cabinet meeting Monday.
“The President has already ordered [presidential adviser on OFW concerns Abdullah] Mamao to fly immediately to Saudi and fix the plight of the OFWs,” he added.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III earlier recalled the country’s labor attachés in Riyadh and Jeddah over their alleged inaction on the plight of stranded and retrenched Filipino workers there. Both denied failing to perform their duties.
Bello, who flew to the Middle East to personally see the situation of the distressed OFWs, said he was disappointed at how the two officials addressed the plight of Filipino workers who were stranded either because their permits had expired or they were still waiting for their unpaid wages.
“They were remiss in their jobs. They neglected the concerns of our countrymen. Imagine, some of the cases were already a year old, yet they did not report these to the labor department,” Bello said. “In cases like these, immediate assistance should be extended.”
Bello said he has already ordered both officials to submit written explanations why they should not be sanctioned.
The OFWs, formerly employed at Saudi Oger, received claim forms for assistance amounting to SAR1,590, close to P20,000, from the Philippine government through the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, Overseas Worker Welfare Administration and Philippine consulate.
They also received some assistance from OFW groups. Their families are also entitled to P6,000 financial assistance.
The workers said that they hope to get help returning to the Philippines, as most of them have yet to get their final pay.
Workers in Saudi Arabia ran into employment and financial trouble after the kingdom’s economy was affected by a decline in the prices of oil. Several companies ceased operations or retrenched employees and implemented other cost-cutting measures in order to cope with lower income.
An estimated 11,000 OFWs employed in large construction and maintenance companies and sub-contractors in Saudi Arabia suffering from delayed wages.