Ilonggos hope for easier remittance thru OFW bank

Filipino domestic helpers line up to send money at a remittance center in Hong Kong, in this 2008 photo. Ilonggo overseas workers hope the Overseas Filipino Bank could help them send money to their families easier and faster. AFP

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Sunday, October 15, 2017
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ILOILO City – A number of Ilonggos working abroad welcomed the government’s creation of the Overseas Filipino Bank (OFB). They hope the bank could, among others, help them send money to their families easier and faster.

In his State of the Nation Address in July, President Rodrigo Duterte said the government has “been hard at work in securing the rights and welfare of our OFWs (overseas Filipino workers).”

On Sept. 28, Duterte signed Executive Order No. 44, which provided for the acquisition of the Philippine Postal Savings Bank by the Land Bank of the Philippines and its conversion into the OFB.

“There is a need to establish a policy bank dedicated to provide financial products and services tailored to the requirements of overseas Filipinos, and focused on delivering quality and efficient foreign remittance services,” the order stated.

A 27-year-old native of Tapaz, Capiz, Jen Equipado began working as a beautician in a parlor in Brunei three months ago. She left her two kids – aged 6 and 4 – with their father in Iloilo to try her luck abroad.

Before going to Brunei, Equipado worked as a geriatric caregiver in Iloilo. Her income, however, was barely enough for her children’s needs, especially since their father had no permanent work.

She said she decided to work abroad, battling homesickness, just so she could raise funds for her children’s education.

Equipado said she appreciates the setting up of a bank that makes OFWs its priority. “I will surely avail [myself] of the programs it would offer,” she said.

“It’s about time, I guess, that they give priority to OFWs,” said Arman Lucero, who first worked as a contract worker in Saudi Arabia for four years before moving to Australia.

A native of Lambunao, Iloilo, Lucero had been in Australia for a decade. He became an Australian citizen three years ago.

Lucero said he plans to put up businesses in the Philippines.

Leilanie Ostan, 45, a caregiver in Israel for eight years, hopes the bank would make it easier for her to send money to her family in the Philippines.

“I hope the bank would offer a lower charge for our remittances and our families could claim them faster and easier,” she said.

Precious Gono, 29, who had been working in Macau, China for almost three years now, also welcomed the creation of the OFB.

“I hope it would provide us who work away from our families many benefits,” she said.

She described the bank’s creation as a “reward” for OFWs like her who have been working abroad for a long time.

“I hope it (OFB) can deliver whatever it promises,” she said.

Ostan and Gono are from Bugasong, Antique.

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Western Visayas has recorded 62,409 active members as of Sept. 26.

Of the figure, 50,174 were land-based workers, 11,683 were sea-based and 552 were uncategorized. (PNA)
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