A MEASURE establishing a credit assistance program for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) has been approved on second reading at the House of Representatives.
House Bill 4985, or the proposed Overseas Workers Credit Assistance Act, authored by Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Susan Yap of Tarlac, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II of Mandaluyong, Party-list Rep. Juan Revilla of OFW and Liberal Party Rep. Joseph Gilbert F. Violago of Nueva Ecija, would provide credit assistance to OFWs even before they leave the country.
Under the bill, an OFW can avail himself or herself of a loan of not more than P50,000 from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to defray the living expenses of the worker’s family during his or her first months of absence or to pay for recruitment expenses, including placement fees, documentation costs and plane tickets.
The bill provides that, within one year after the effectivity of the measure, an online payment system shall be established wherein the OFW borrower may pay the loan amortization through the Internet.
However, failure to pay the loan or any violation of the terms imposed upon the loan shall be sufficient ground for the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and all its offices, including its deputized and accredited private entities and the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (Polos) to withhold the issuance of the Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) and any other exit permit or clearance to work abroad to the overseas worker-borrower concerned.
It added that that private entity, which issues an OEC and exit permit to any overseas worker-borrower, shall suffer the penalty of 60-day suspension of its license or accreditation for the first offense and permanent cancellation of license or accreditation for the second offense.