Hundreds of thousands of enraged overseas Filipino workers
have signed two separate online petitions calling for a halt to their mandatory
payment for PhilHealth premium, which has been raised to more than four times
the previous amount charged them.
Starting this year, all Filipinos overseas are required to
pay 3% of their monthly salary to PhilHealth, in line with RA 11223 or the
Universal Health Care Act, which took effect on Dec. 7 last year yet.
Previously, OFWs were only charged an annual premium of
Php2,400 for PhilHealth, and it was not mandatory. Given the minimum salary of
a foreign domestic worker in HK amounting to about Php30k, the annual premium
they must now pay would be no less than Php10,800, or a whopping 450% increase.
The law which has yet to be enforced abroad, recently came under
closer scrutiny because of a circular issued on Apr 22 by PhilHealth president BGen.
Ricardo Morales reminding OFWs about their premium contribution, and the
penalties for not paying on time.
Morales said in the circular that OFWs can opt to pay their
annual fee in full, or pay Php2,400 initially, with the balance to be paid
quarterly over one year. By next year, the initial payment will rise to three
month’s worth of contribution, with the same quarterly payment for the balance.
The circular set off alarm bells after it was picked up in a
signature campaign posted on the online platform, change.org. Within just a
week of its launch, the campaign has already been signed by around 350,000 people, with the number growing rapidly per hour.
Another petition carried by secure.avaaz.org and launched by
workers in the Middle East is already close to
its target of 200,000.
In Hong Kong, Filipino migrant leaders who have taken to the
streets to oppose the punitive new fees, have continued their own signature
campaign launched in January this year. The first batch of around 20,000 signatures that they collected previously was submitted to Consul General Raly Tejada, to be forwarded to the Philippine government.
Today, May 3, they set up a signature desk on Chater Road
According to Janette Carnay of United Filipinos in Hong Kong , more than 6,000 signatures were gathered on
this day alone. She says the social media campaign against the fee collection
appears to have enlightened many OFWs about what looms ahead for them, so they
are more than eager to sign the petition.
“Kahit sa MTR may pumipirma, at hindi na kailangan ng
mahabang paliwanagan,” Carnay said. (Even on the MTR they signed, and we didn’t
have to explain at length what the issue is about).
On Chater Road
 |
| Carnay explaining the issue to beachgoers in Turtle Cove before asking for signatures |
Another reason seen by Unifil-Migrante for the snowballing
anger over the forced collection is the feeling by many OFWs that they have
been abandoned or neglected by the Duterte administration amid the global
pandemic.
In the Philippines
And while the Department of Labor and Employment was given
funding to help OFWs affected by the coronavirus contagion, this was limited to
only those who have lost their jobs, or got sick of Covid-19.
Online, even OFWs known for their open support for President
Duterte have also been complaining why their families were not given “ayuda” or
financial aid when they are struggling like any other Filipino amid the global crisis.
Not a few have accused government officials of using them as
“milking cows” for the jobless. They rue that those who don’t work get social
welfare assistance and are always the first in line for cash and other benefits
while OFWs who do backbreaking work and help bolster the economy don’t get any
assistance at all.
Many are appealing for help from lawmakers and other
government officials to get the law mandating the steep PhilHealth contribution
amended, if not reversed. They say it’s like everybody in government is working
against the benefit of OFWs
The growing clamor to stop PhilHealth from forcibly
collecting the huge new fees from OFWs has won the support of Foreign Affairs Secretary
Teodoro Locsin Jr, who twitted that the authorities should “leave the OFWs
alone”.
“It is like an income tax which was abolished for OFWs and
even their tax-free income filings were destroyed. They are just totally out of
the purview of government exactions for which they will not benefit at all,” Locsin
said.
RA 11223, which was widely touted to provide free health
care to all Filipinos, became law on February 20, 2019 after it was signed by
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tito Sotto
as Senate President, and President Duterte.
It took effect on Dec. 7 last year, 15 days after the
publication of its Implementing Rules and Regulations.
What many people, especially the OFWs, did not realize then, was
that the big burden of funding the huge cost of providing universal care in the
Philippines, would be passed on to them and other Filipinos living and working abroad.
