OFWs rue mandatory remittance of 80% of income

OFWs rue mandatory remittance of 80% of income
Malou Talosig-Bartolome April 7, 2025 https://businessmirror.com.ph/2025/04/07/ofws-rue-mandatory-remittance-o...

FILIPINO seafarers are complaining that the recently passed Magna Carta for Seafarers is requiring them to remit every month 80 percent of their total income back home.

Magna Carta for Seafarers, signed last year, was supposed to enhance the protection of Filipino seafarers overseas. The Department of Migrant Workers released the Implementing Rules and Regulations last January 2025.

Section 38 of the Magna Carta states that the seafarer is “required to make an allotment which shall be payable once a month to the seafarer’s designated allottee in the Philippines through any authorized Philippine bank…The allotment shall be at least 80 percent of the seafarer’s monthly salary.”

A Facebook post by Andrea Barza Aller, a crew of cruise ship Royal Carribean Cruise Line, has gone viral. Aller addressed the post to Sen. Raffy Tulfo, one of the main sponsors of the Magna Carta for Seafarers.

“Ramdam na ramdam dito sa barko naming mga Filipino Seafarers ang lungkot at pagkadismaya dahil sa pinatupad mong New Magna Carta Law of Allotment for Seafarers.

“May nakasabay ako kaninang Galley Steward papuntang crew mess at isang Laundry Attendant. Sabi nila ano na lang matira na sahod dito onboard. Pagkasyahin mo sa wi-fi at mga need na bilhin pag mag-shore leave,” she wrote.

[Seafarers on our ship are deeply saddened by the New Magna Carta Law of Allotment for Seafarers. I was with a Galley Steward and Laundry Attendant; they said little is left of their income onboard. They still have to pay for wi-fi and other essentials when on shore leave].

Service crew who do not receive tips from customers suffer most, she said.

Rinell Banda, founder of Buhay sa Cruise Ship Facebook community, said many seafarers prefer to save their income onboard so that they will not have to pay so much for foreign exchange differentials and remittance cost.

“We know that when the dollar is converted in the bank, the amount received by the family is less,” Banda said, in Filipino.

“If the recipient of the allotment in the Philippines is a spendthrift, this does not favcor the seafarers who spends all his contract years slaving away to support his family,” he added.

Dr. Celerino “Chie” Umandap, Ako OFW Partylist nominee, said the allotees are now elated that they are receiving more remittances this year.

But some crew members who are separated from their spouses or those who are single, feel they are now being robbed by this new provision.

“One seafarer I talked to said even his spouse’s boyfriend is benefitting from his money,” he told BusinessMirror.

Atty. Dennis Gorecho, head of the seafarers’ division of Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan (SVBB) law firm, was one of those present during congressional hearings when the law was being deliberated on.

He said that this provision somehow escaped them.

Prior to the implementation of the law, Filipino seafarers remit 80 percent of their basic pay, which does not include their overtime pay and other incentives.

However, the Magna Carta’s definition of “wages” now includes “overtime pay, holiday pay, vacation leave pay, premium pay, paid leaves, and 13th month pay, if applicable.”