AGIMAT Party-list Representative Bryan Revilla has raised alarm over what he described as the disproportionate budget allotted to agencies mandated to protect overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), despite their massive contribution to the economy.
Speaking during the Department of Migrant Workers’ (DMW) budget hearing on September 12, Revilla underscored that OFWs remitted more than ₱2.2 trillion in 2024, equivalent to nearly a third of the country’s national budget. Yet, he lamented that only ₱13.19 billion—or just 0.15 percent of the proposed 2026 spending plan—is earmarked for the DMW and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
“Let that sink in: what our OFWs contribute in a single year is over 215 times larger than what we propose to invest in the very institutions mandated to protect and serve them,” Revilla stressed.
He shared accounts of DMW personnel working beyond their means and risking their lives to serve distressed migrants, from answering emergency calls at all hours to rescuing Filipinos in conflict zones. Some staff, he added, even shoulder their own equipment expenses due to the lack of resources.
Revilla described the situation as a “cruel paradox,” noting that millions of OFWs depend on these agencies, but the government allocates only a fraction of its budget to sustain their services.
“That is why I respectfully urge this Committee to restore and augment the budgets of the DMW and OWWA—not as a token of goodwill, but as a rightful investment in those who have long carried our nation on their shoulders,” he said.
