It has been agreed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will set aside 2 billion riyals. This will take care of the unpaid salaries of the 10,000 OFWs by the Middle Eastern country's bankrupt construction firms.
To cover the unpaid wages of the 10,000 overseas Filipino workers employed by construction companies in the Saudi Arabia that filed for bankruptcy six years ago, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has agreed to set aside 2 billion riyals which are roughly ₱30.52 billion.
President Marcos Jr. met with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman in a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, hosted by Thailand, Manila Standard reported.
He said that he looks forward to meeting Mr. Salman on his visit to the country and talk about a wide range of issues and areas of cooperation.
The Department of Migrant Workers said that the Saudi pledged to cover the unpaid salaries of workers who filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and 2016.
Saudi Oger, MMG, and Bin Laden group are a few of the Saudi Arabian construction firms that filed for bankruptcy.
“The Crown Prince, His Royal Highness, announced and said that this was his gift—he really prepared for this and this was an agreement reached by the Saudi government just a few days ago,” DMW Secretary Susan Ople said.
“So, this is really good news and we thank Saudi Arabia,” she added.
On the sidelines of the 29th APEC Economic Leader’s Meeting (AELM), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the KSA broadcast a video of the meeting between the two leaders online.
“That would be very good kung makabisita sa atin si Crown Prince at hindi lamang tungkol sa mga labor, pati na ‘yung mga investments napwede nating gawin,” Marcos said.
Marcos said he and “MBS” talked about their energy needs, noting that Saudi Arabia was the world’s largest producer of petroleum and that the Middle Eastern kingdom had helped the Philippines during the oil crisis in the 1970s to 1980s.
“Kaya’t baka sakali naman ay tayo maaring makiusap muli na tulungan ulit tayo,” he added.
In line with this, Marcos said that Saudi’s labor minister assured Filipino officials that the failure of employers to pay OFWs in Saudi will not happen again.
In 2020, 26.6 percent of the 3.48 million documented Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), or about 925,000 Filipinos, were working in Saudi Arabia, based on the data of the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Tags: #OFWs, #UnpaidSalary