Overseas Filipino workers arriving via the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City on December 18, 2023 are given their "pasalubongs" by the Office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Agency (OWWA) and the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW). Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File

MANILA — The Philippines has disbursed an “unprecedented” amount of cash and other forms of assistance for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) this year, the Department of Migrant Workers said on Monday. 

Nearly half of this year’s P2.8-billion “action fund” has been distributed to about 62,000 OFWs who were either affected by the chaos in Sudan, the war in Gaza, or those who needed legal assistance, DMW Secretary Hans Cacdac said. 

“Nearly 1,000 OFWs in Sudan and 1,000 in the Hamas-Israel situation ang nabigyan ng whole of government assistance… Unprecedented and packages na naibigay,” he told state television PTV. 

“This is a global operation that will bring OFWs all the way to their families,” he said. 

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On top of aid from the DMW, repatriated OFWs also received assistance from the departments of health, social welfare, labor, and foreign affairs.

 The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is also helping repatriated Filipinos to learn new skill sets that they can use in starting their own businesses here, Cacdac said. 

Some 54,000 OFWs needed help to settle their labor-related cases and court hearings, he said. 

These cases include rape, physical injury, withholding of salaries and theft, he said.

While the agency usually gives P10,000-P20,000 in cash aid, Filipino repatriates from Israel, Sudan and other countries with war-like conditions received P50,000 in assistance from the Philippine government, Cacdac said. 

The government has been working to find “better ways in which people can access the fund,” the DMW chief said. 

“There are always areas for improvement,” he said, 

So far, 900 OFWs are reunited every month with their families through the repatriation command center, he said.