New guidelines on use of P1-B OFW fund signed

MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano yesterday signed the new guidelines on the use of the P1-billion fund for distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

The new guidelines were prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)’s Office of Migrant Workers Affairs after Congress approved President Duterte’s request to increase the Assistance to Nationals (ATN) Fund from P400 million to P1 billion and the Legal Assistance Fund (LAF) from P100 million to P200 million for 2018.

Cayetano said with the new guidelines on the use of ATN and LAF, the DFA is now in the position to more effectively respond to the growing number of distressed OFWs.

Cayetano had ordered a review and revision of the guidelines after the President announced the budget augmentation for the DFA “to allow more flexibility in their disbursement, to expand the scope of the services covered and to be more responsive to the needs of our distressed kababayans abroad.”

“The rationale behind the revised guidelines is for us to be able to help as many and as much without sacrificing the quality of our service.

“The LAF may be availed of by a distressed overseas Filipino who is unable to engage the services of private counsel, and who is in a country where there is no system of legal aid or public defenders, or where there is no access to counsel de officio, or any lawyer provided by the foreign host government,” he added.

The ATN Funds, on the other hand, will be used to cover welfare assistance and repatriation of distressed, sick and deceased Filipinos abroad. It also includes the cost of cremation or embalming, transport of remains to the Philippines and burial assistance. 

Under the new guidelines, the DFA will not only provide care packages and basic supplies for Filipinos on death row and those serving life sentences abroad, but will also shoulder the cost of compassionate visits by their next of kin to the country of incarceration.