SENATE President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the Department of Foreign Affairs fund to assist OFWs in distress was not enough despite a 140 percent increase, which amounts to P1.2 billion in 2018.
Also marked for increase is the Legal Assistance Fund of the DFA. From P100 million this year, it will double to P200 million in 2018, he said.
The twin budgetary initiatives, Recto said, was a “good news long overdue” even as he called on the government “to identify all OFW assistance funds so we will know if they are sufficient.”
Recto has been waging a campaign for the Assistance to Nationals fund of the DFA to reach at least P1 billion.
Finally, ATN funding will reach the amount Recto has been advocating, based on the proposed 2018 national budget.
“That would be a 150 percent increase, from this year’s P400 million. It is a big jump. The challenge now is how to increase it yearly. It should not be static again,” Recto said.
The P1-billion ATN fund is lodged in the budget of the DFA. The latter has a proposed P19.5-billion budget for next year.
“So overall, the OFW assistance fund under the DFA will increase from P500 million to P1.2 billion,” Recto said. “But these are just the funds clearly earmarked and are on top of the regular services the DFA is extending to Filipino nationals.”
He said the ATN fund was an important lifeline for Filipinos in trouble in foreign lands.
From July to December 2015, 3,253 Filipinos benefitted from the ATN fund, “and more would have been if there were more funds,” Recto said.
But to clearly identify all sources of funds for OFW assistance, Recto is calling for a “singular budget tally” of appropriations and off-budget money intended to aid Filipinos overseas.
In his campaign for a bigger ATN fund, Recto has always compared its size to OFW remittances, and would invoke the large gap in batting for an increase in funding.
He said the ATN fund and LAF of P500 million this year was “a microscopic one-third of one percent of OFW contribution to the economy.”
The P500 million is what OFWs send back home in “three hours and 23 minutes, based on 2015 remittances.”