Cases await OWWA execsin P1.4 billion land deal
Credit to Author: Mayen Jaymalin| Date: Tue, 27 May 2025 00:00:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — Administrative and criminal cases await officials of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) involved in the anomalous P1.4-billion land deal.
In a social media post, Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Cacdac said the government will run after those who pocketed money from the questionable deal.
He clarified that former OWWA administrator Arnell Ignacio was removed from office following “serious procedural and substantive lapses” related to the land acquisition worth P1.4 billion without authorization from the OWWA board of trustees.
The OWWA board, Cacdac said, could have advised Ignacio on the impracticality and cost inefficiency of constructing a halfway house for a huge number of repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Cacdac further stressed the need for the OWWA board’s approval prior to the signing of the Deed of Absolute Sale of the P1.4-billion real property and the Deed of Donation covering a certain portion of real property by the seller.
“What is also apparent is the inexplicable manner in which this attorney-in-fact seems to have been entrusted with two significant amounts of money – P36 million representing the amount returned by the OWWA, purportedly due to local transfer taxes paid by mistake by the seller, and an estimate of P1.4 million representing collected rent by the attorney-in-fact of the seller on the leased property already owned by the Republic of the Philippines,” Cacdac said.
Ignacio denied any irregularity in the land deal and declined to further comment on the issue.
Migration expert Manny Geslani expressed dismay over the removal of Ignacio who, during his term responded immediately to distressed OFWs.
“His removal will be a huge loss for OFWs as his track record in responding to OFWs cannot be replicated by his successor,” Geslani said.