THE Department of Justice said the Agarang Kalinga at Saklolo Para sa mga OFW na Nangangailangan (AKSYON) fund established pursuant to the charter of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) should be accessible to all overseas Filipino workers.
This was the legal opinion rendered by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla in response to a query by DMW Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac.
Cacdac sought the DOJ’s legal opinion due to what he described as the apparent discrepancy between Section 14 of Republic Act 11641 that created the DMW which mentions the provision of assistance to OFWs at Foreign Service Posts where Migrant Workers’ Offices are established and staffed and Section 3 (a).
The DMW chief interpreted the said provision as “potentially restricting the utilization of the AKSYON Funds to foreign service posts, which may exclude distressed OFWs who are either about to depart the Philippines or have been repatriated.”
Section 3 (a) of the same law defines the fund as “intended to provide legal, medical, financial and other forms of assistance” to OFWs without any qualification.
The definition of OFW in Section 3 (g) of the same law encompasses individuals contracted for overseas employment but who have not yet left the Philippines.
Cacdac wanted to know whether the AKSYON Fund may only be exclusively utilized at Foreign Service Posts and whether distressed OFWs who have been repatriated and those who are still in the country unable to depart due to circumstances beyond their control such as war, pandemic or victims of illegal recruitment may also have access to the fund.
Remulla said the AKSYON Fund should be accessible to all OFWs, wherever they are.
“To interpret Section 14 in the manner that limits AKSYON Fund’s availability only to OFWs at Foreign Service Posts or abroad, excluding repatriated OFWs and those who have yet to depart from the country would defeat the fundamental purpose for which the fund was established,” Remulla said in his legal opinion dated September 16, 2024.
“As seen in the definition of the AKSYON Fund, the provision of assistance comes without restriction or qualification, and the term OFW encompasses those who have not yet left the country, regardless of status,” Remulla added.
The DOJ chief said this makes it clear that RA 11641, in establishing the fund, intends for it to be available to all OFWs in need of assistance, whether they are abroad, have returned to the country, or have yet to depart.
“The clear intent, therefore, is to utilize the AKSYON Fund to safeguard the rights of all OFWs,” Remulla said.
“In light of the above, we opine that the AKSYON Fund is accessible to all OFWs in need of assistance, regardless of their location,” he added.
Remulla also stressed that the DMW chief is vested with the authority to establish the guidelines for the proper use of the AKSYON funds.
This year, the DMW’s allotted budget for the AKSYON fund stands at P2.8 billion.
The DMW utilized the funds to assist OFWs fleeing Israel in the immediate aftermath of last year’s attack by Hamas and the Sudan crisis also last year, among others.