By Daisy CL Mandap
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| Pag-Ibig (love) cannot be forced, says this poster held by an OFW-leader |
From August, all overseas Filipino workers who need to
secure an overseas employment certificate (OEC) before leaving the Philippines
for their workplace abroad will be made to pay for membership to the government’s
housing arm, Pag-IBIG Fund.
This was confirmed to The SUN by Assistant Labor
Attache Angelica Sunga, who said the information was disclosed by ICT Director
Ken Sarmiento of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (now subsumed under the
Department of Migrant Workers) during an online forum on the EOC last Sunday, Jun 26.
Sarmiento reportedly said that “effective Aug 1,
Pag-IBIG will be linked to the OEC system wherein the OFWs will be required to
encode their respective Pag-IBIG numbers and the system will be able to
identify if the entry is correct.”
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
This effectively means that all OFWs will eventually
have to pay for membership in Pag-IBIG Fund, something that was not required of
them in the past.
Sunga said the Philippine Overseas Labor Office has
already requested for an official communication and guidelines regarding the
linking of the Pag-IBIG payment to the OEC so they can already issue an
advisory to all OFWs in Hong Kong.
According to Marites Nuval, president of Global
Alliance Hong Kong who took part in the forum, OFWs were told that those who
already secured their OECs before Aug 1 will still be exempt from the mandatory
payment for Pag-IBIG.
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| Pindutin para sa detalye |
Since the OEC is valid for 60 days, this means that
those who are planning to go home in the Philippines in August can secure it
within this month to avoid getting caught in the mandatory payment scheme.
Eventually, though, if the linking is continued under
the term of first DMW Secretary Susan Ople, all OFWs will be forced to pay for
Pag-IBIG membership which amounts to a minimum of Php100 per month, or a total
of Php2,400 per two-year contract.
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| Screen grab from the online forum during which the mandatory Pag-IBIG collection was revealed |
Another OFW who listened to the discussion said they
were told that payment to Pag-IBIG will be beneficial to migrant workers
because their membership will entitle them to housing loans and save and earn money
through the mp2 investment program.
Indeed, the Pag-IBIG Fund was set up as a savings
system that provides financing to Filipino workers who want to buy a house.
Members’ monthly contributions earn annual dividends which are tax-free and
government guaranteed.
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| HOW? PINDUTIN LANG ANG PICTURE |
Members who have paid 24 monthly contributions will be
entitled to apply for a housing loan, but the amount will depend on how much
money they have put in.
Dolores Balladares-Pelaez, chair of United
Filipinos-Migrante Hong Kong said it does not matter when the government plans
to start linking Pag-IBIG to the OEC, but membership in the program should be
voluntary.
Unifil-Migrante
and most other OFW groups in Hong Kong are wary of recent moves to compel them
to pay various government fees, from contribution to the national health
insurer, PhilHealth to the Social Security Sytem and mandatory insurance.
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| Press for details |
An allied
group, Bayan Muna Hong Kong, has described the fee as "another form of
state exaction” while Migrante International has decried what it called as
attempts by various government agencies to turn OFWs into their “piggy banks.”
If all the fees
were made mandatory, an OFW earning the minimum salary in Hong Kong will end up
paying about Php47,000 a year to the
government, money that could already cover a year’s tuition fee for
their children.
Controversy
about the mandatory collection of Pag-IBIG contributions from OFWs dates back
to 2009 when Republic Act 9679 became law to further strengthen the Pag-IBIG
Fund.
But it took
11 more years before another attempt was made to carry out this plan. This
happened on Oct 20, 2020 when POEA and Pag-IBIG Fund signed a memorandum of
agreement to collect them through POEA’s electronic payment and collection system.
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| PRESS FOR MORE DETAILS |
The plan
again stalled until the POEA posted on its Facebook page on Apr 20 photos of a
two-page joint advisory signed by POEA Administrator Bernard P. Olalia and
Pag-IBIG Fund President Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti
The post
said that effective April 26, the POEA would require all OFWs and applicants
for overseas jobs to encode their Pag-IBIG membership ID numbers in their
e-Registration System accounts. POEA will then collect their Pag-IBIG
contributions before issuing their OECs.
The advisory
raised a howl of protest but both the Consulate and Pag-IBIG Fund’s office in
Hong Kong were quick to give assurance that no definite date had yet been set
for executing the plan - until now.
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| PADALA NA! |
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