A Catholic Bishop on Friday lauded the new law increasing the tax-exempt value of items sent by migrant workers to their families, stressing that such a development was "advantageous" to overseas Filipino workers.
Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos of the bishops’ Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People said such new law is certainly a “good news” for the OFWs.
“It’s a relief and assurance for our OFWs as they can pay less to send balikbayan boxes and they can send more to their loved ones,” Santos said on the website of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
Santos was referring to the signed Republic Act 10863 or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) signed by outgoing President Benigno Aquino III which increases the tax-exempt value of items sent by OFWs to their families back home.
The CMTA increases the tax exemption ceiling from P10,000 to P150,000 a year, provided that the goods are not in commercial quantities.
‘‘With increased tax exemptions custom officials don’t have to strictly inspect balikbayan boxes, and so stealing some items or destruction of balikbayan boxes will be avoided,’’ Santos said.
Relatedly, while incoming President-elect Rodrigo Duterte cannot stop Filipinos from seeking employment overseas, Portuguese Fr. Paolo Prigol, head of the Missionaries of St. Charles’ Apostleship of the Sea in the Philippines, said the administration should include in its agenda the protection of the overseas Filipino workers.
“You are free to find a job here in the Philippines or overseas. The only thing, I guess, he [Duterte] should try to implement is to make sure that the jobs are decent, and that OFWs are well-protected,” he said in a statement posted on a CBCP website.
Quoting the Scalabrinians’ founder, Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, Prigol stressed that “‘Migration is a right, but the duty of the State is protection."
“The Government, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and other concerned state agencies should protect the Filipino migrants, especially when they are overseas,” the priest added.
Prigol cited common OFW complaints about abuse overseas, neglect by the deploying agencies, and scant assistance from government agencies during emergencies and repatriation.
He noted that Duterte won the mock elections conducted in the three dorms they run that cater to land-and-sea-based OFWs.
Prigol said the migrant workers, mostly staying in Metro Manila to process their papers or await deployment, even went home to their respective parishes to vote last month.
The main ministry of the Missionaries of St. Charles, also known as Scalabrinians, is to serve migrants.
In the Philippines, they run a dorm for individuals and families in New Manila, Quezon City.
The facility, called Scalabrini Center for People on the Move, can house 145 persons at any given time while the two Stella Maris dormitories for seafarers located in Ermita, Manila can house 182 people.
“In all three dorms, 99 percent of the people are from Visayas and Mindanao. We conducted a mock poll in the dorms and Duterte won by 70 to 80 percent,” Prigol revealed.
OFWs’ monetary remittance has been one of the key contributors to the Philippine economy, driving local consumption.
Considering this, Prigol said Duterte should address the plight of OFWs, who are often touted as the country’s new breed of heroes because of their sacrifices.
Out of the numerous proposals for migrants’ affairs, Duterte can adopt the proposals made by the Movement of Maritime Philippines (MMP) into his government’s agenda, Prigol said.
The Philippines is renowned as one of the top suppliers of seafarers around the globe.
According to data from the Philippine Maritime Industry, the income of Filipino seafarers represent 25 percent of OFW remittances.