Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 17) — The settlement of unpaid wages of over 10,000 overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia is not expected to happen this year, said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega on Thursday.
\”The DFA will be frank, will be honest sa ating mga kababayan (to our people). Early this year, our Embassy reported that it is not realistic to expect the payment to come this year. It’s not realistic,\” said De Vega in a Congressional Oversight Committee Meeting.
Around 10,000 OFWs are yet to receive their back wages from construction firms that declared bankruptcy in 2015 and 2016.
In 2022, the Saudi Arabia government committed some 2 billion riyals for the unpaid OFWs from construction firms that went bankrupt.
But DMW Secretary Susan Ople earlier said that the settlement of the unpaid wages is \”just a matter of time.\”
Senator Raffy Tulfo told the Department of Migrant Workers to directly ask the Saudi Arabia government for a time frame for the claiming of unpaid wages.
\”Dapat kayo na mismo ang magtanong sa kataas-taasan sa Saudi, ‘Pwede po ba kayo magbigay ng araw kung kailan?’ Para ma-pressure din sila dun sa Saudi. That’s the way to do it, to pressure them,\” he said.
[Translation: You should be the one to directly ask the higher officials in Saudi, ‘Can you give us a timeline?’ So they will be pressured to take action. That’s the way to do it, to pressure them.]
