Safeguards Planholders In Final Pre-Need Code

This week, Sen. Mar Roxas vowed to push for the interests of pre-need planholders over industry players in the final version of the Pre-Need Code, which will soon be under congressional bicameral deliberations.

Roxas, chairman of the Senate trade and commerce committee, assured he will frontload consumer rights and give priority to the viability of the industry when the bicameral conference committee begins reconciling the differing versions of the bill passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Senate approved the proposed Pre-Need Code of the Philippines on June 11 2008. The House approved its own version only last August 12. No date has been set for the bicameral meetings.

"Will look out for the interest of the consumers in our deliberations. It is important to protect the future of the industry without sacrificing the consumers’ own future," Roxas said.

He stressed the need for the adequate protection and security of consumers by way of a restructured trust fund mechanism; and for pre-need companies to be subject to strict dis-closure requirements, including the disclosing of risks associated with buying pre-need plans.

"We need to fix the industry. I pity those who were scammed by the likes of Celso de los Angeles into losing savings meant to ensure their family’s future," Roxas said.

More Teeth In OFW Protection

Also this week, Senator Mar Roxas called for stronger government protection for the estimated 10 million Filipinos working abroad, especially against abuses by their employers or host countries.

At the same time, Roxas vowed to press for reforms in government policy involving the deployment of skilled and non-skilled workers to other countries as he noted the growing number of Filipinos overseas and the rising number of sad OFW-related incidents.

"I believe that the best thing we can give to our OFW is security for them. We need to give them all the support and protection so they will be spared of abuses while they are abroad," he said.

The government must also reduce the financial burden of Filipino overseas workers by removing the 0.15 percent Documentary Stamps Tax (DST) on money remittances to the country, Roxas suggested. It is a "significant financial burden to (OFWs) con-sidering that the country is already experiencing unprecedented highs in food and oil prices," he said.

Roxas also pushed for the professionalization of the Foreign Service system, which he said would ensure that only the most talented and most qualified are recruited by the government to ensure that our OFWs will get quality assistance from personnel and officers of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

He also pressed Malacanang to release the P50 million for the OFW Social Reintegration program to the Department of Labor and Employment. The program provides "balikbayan" OFWs with sufficient knowledge of how to use their savings as well as investment opportunities and other forms of reintegration assistance.

The government must ensure that OFWs have access to communication wherever they are to easily call Philippine offices in their areas in cases of employer problems and that free legal services for those facing legal problems are readily made available, Roxas recommends. Pre-departure orientation and preparation seminars should likewise be given to departing OFWs to brief them of their rights and on what they should and could do should they encounter difficulties in their jobs, he added.

But all these reforms, he stressed, could only take place once an activist government – one that cares for and listen to its people – takes over from the current administration, which has consistently shown insensitivity to the plight of its workers abroad. /MP