02 February 2006

For reference: Ramon Bultron
Managing Director, Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants
(APMM)
Tel. No.: (+852) 2723-7536, 9477-3141

MECO is a multi-million pesos scandal
Migrant's group urges probe of MECO donation to president's office

The MECO scandal must be investigated thoroughly. The Philippine government owes this to all OFWs especially to the Filipino workers in Taiwan.

This was the reaction of Ramon Bultron, managing director of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) in the recently uncovered anomaly involving the Manila Economic Cultural Office (MECO) in Taiwan and its funds.

APMM, an HK-based regional non-government group that has a Filipino migrant's program in Taiwan, said that the unexplained P30M transfer of funds from the MECO to the Office of the President in August 2003, nine months before the 2004 elections, must be thoroughly scrutinized.

"Considering that for the longest time, MECO has been using the excuse of lack of personnel to attend to problems of OFWs in Taiwan, we wonder why it has become convenient for them to donate such a generous amount to the office of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?" Bultron added.

MECO serves as a de-facto embassy of the Philippines in Taiwan.

In a grilling at the Senate for the DFA budget last January 25, no satisfactory answer was given by DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo on the matter. It was also revealed in the said hearing that MECO is considered as a private entity yet collects millions of pesos (P235M in 2005) from processing documents for OFWs in Taiwan.

"While MECO earns millions from OFWs that it gives, unexplained, to the President, it is tightfisted when it comes to spending for services to migrants in need. This is plain robbery," said Bultron.

Bultron further said that the dubious operations of the MECO in relation to its fee collections as exposed in the Senate hearing is an even more serious crime against migrants in HK.

"If it is true that MECO exacts fees from OFWs for doing processing jobs reserved for government agencies, and is not subjected to public auditing, then a long time swindling of OFWs is in operation. We wonder how many other contributions MECO has given to the Office of the President," he remarked.

The APMM urged further investigation on the MECO scandal.

"If it comes to services to OFWs, the government always has no money. But when it comes to collection, they'll move heaven and earth to extract millions from migrant workers. Aside from empty platitudes to the economic contribution of OFWs, this is the only thing the Arroyo administration is good at," Bultron concluded.