Now that the Saudi Government started paying the Saudi Claimants from Saudi Oger ex-employees it seems that the long overdue payment of unpaid salaries for OFW's are near and yet so far. Those claimants who are still in Saudi Arabia managed to get their cash from Alinma Bank but those who are in the Philippines received their cheque through DHL but the cheque is in Saudi Riyals and the local banks are not accepting it. Some managed to deposit the cheque in the Landbank of the Philippines but the cheque was returned to them.
There are still more ex-employees from Saudi Oger who are yet to receive their pay cheques and more claimants from other companies like MMG, Arabtec, J&P etc. are yet to receive any information from the Department of Migrant Workers if they will get paid as promised by Saudi Government that nine construction companies that went on bankruptcy will get paid.
The only time DMW officials will give information is when the spokesperson of claimants from different companies will chase them to hold a meeting. The supposed to be focal person, USec Olalia never gave any update at least on the DMW page about the Status of the Claims. Earlier they have mentioned that the payment would be Government to Government but it never happened and they were not aware that the Ministry of Finance already started processing the payment.
The OFWs who were considered "bagong bayani" deserved better service from better officials who were compassionate enough to deal with the issues of OFWs.