ASSISTANCE. Antique Board Member Karmila Rose Dimamay sponsors an ordinance providing financial or livelihood assistance to displaced or distressed Antique overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). The proposed ordinance passed on first reading during the regular session of the provincial board on Monday (Jan. 15, 2024). (Photo courtesy of Board Member Karmila Rose Dimamay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The provincial board of Antique is deliberating on a proposed ordinance that aims to assist distressed or displaced Antique overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
The proposed ordinance entitled “Financial Assistance/Livelihood Assistance for Distressed and Displaced OFWs in the Province of Antique,” sponsored by Board Member Karmila Rose Dimamay who chairs the foreign relations, labor, and employment committee, got the nod of the provincial board on first reading on Monday’s regular session.
“There is no outright assistance being provided to the OFWs by the provincial government yet that I had sponsored the ordinance to help our distressed and displaced OFWs who have come home,” she said in an interview on Tuesday.
The proposed legislation mandates the provincial government to appropriate not less than PHP2 million annually under the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office for the said purpose.
An OFW recipient can have PHP20,000 they can use to either buy their needed medicines after suffering from mental health or for livelihood, such as sari-sari stores.
Available data provided by the Overseas Workers Welfare and Administration (OWWA) Regional Office 6 to Dimamay showed 77 Antique OFWs came home to Antique from Jan. to Aug. 2023 after being abused by their employers or displaced from work.
“One of the distressed OFWs is right now in Anini-y who is suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder because of an attempted rape on her,” Dimamay said.
OFWs who could avail of the assistance based on the proposed ordinance are residents of Antique with proof of displacement, such as a termination letter or document to prove their repatriation or return to the Philippines. (PNA)
