Legal aid, medical support, and cash assistance for distressed overseas Filipino workers would draw from a P2-billion pool under next year’s spending blueprint, with the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) pegging its overall 2027 request at P11.62 billion.
That figure, laid out in the 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP), trails the P11.75 billion Congress signed off on for the agency in the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA). Retirement and life insurance premiums along with special accounts — money that is set aside automatically — are folded into both totals, as is the allocation for the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), which operates under the department.
Broken down, the Marcos Jr. administration wants P7.27 billion routed to the DMW’s Office of the Secretary and P4.35 billion to OWWA.
The P2 billion earmarked for the Agarang Kalinga at Saklolo para sa mga OFW na Nangangailangan, or AKSYON Fund, matches what the program received in the current year. In his budget message, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. flagged the fund as the channel for legal, medical, financial, and related help to workers abroad. Its parent line item — “Worker’s Welfare and Government Placement Services” — is nonetheless slated to shrink, dropping to P4.6 billion from the P4.8 billion in the 2026 GAA.
A steeper reduction hits OWWA’s Emergency Repatriation Program, which the President’s proposal funds at P978 million for 2027, down from P1.29 billion this year.
Repatriation has taken on fresh urgency because of the Middle East, where more than two million Filipinos live and work, according to government figures. Many were caught up in the fallout after the United States and Israel opened their war against Iran on February 28.
Midway through this year, Marcos directed that an extra P3 billion be freed up for the DMW’s repatriation and reintegration operations. Department records through July counted 10,580 migrant workers, overseas Filipinos, and their dependents brought home.
Scrutiny of the request begins at the House appropriations committee, which takes up the proposal on Wednesday, August 26.
