AN advocacy group expressed doubt on who will shoulder the cost on the proposed OFW ID card of the Department of Labor and Employment to be given free to all overseas Filipino workers which would cost more than P3 billion for the production and mailing of the IDs to its recipients.
The Lilac Center for Public Interest also described the OFW ID card as a ‘half-baked’ project that needed to be returned to the drawing board for further serious technical and social study.
“All the signs point to the OFW ID as a ‘rushed’ concoction, so much so that it elicits more questions than it provides answers,” said Nicon Fameronag, Lilac Center president.
The Lilac Center official said the DoLE’s pronouncement that the OFW ID was free was dubious, as an unofficial DoLE document points to the card as costing more than the present Overseas Employment Certificate that the OFW ID Card seeks to replace.
An OEC costs only P100 for returning workers and P200 for newly hired OFWs.
The Memorandum of Agreement details the roles and obligation and responsibilities of the DoLE, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Development Bank of the Philippines, DBP Data Center Inc. APO Production Unit Inc., Philippine Postal Corp., and the Bureau of Immigration, the institutional parties to the MoA.
Under Annex A of the MoA, the APO Production Unit Inc. will charge P40 for printing of each card; the DBP to charge P20; while the DBP Data Center Inc. will charge P440, a total of P500.
In addition, the PhilPost, whose responsibility is to deliver the OFW ID Cards in the Philippines and abroad will charge P7 per card for “letter shopping” service, which refers to “collating, inserting, labeling, and sealing,” as well as “insertion of odd-sized mail pieces.”
This will be on top of the mailing, which varies depending on the weight of the mail to be delivered; local destination; mode of delivery, i.e., either by domestic registered mail, express mail, or international registered or express mail; zone; and country of destination.