The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is now processing the unpaid wages of more than 10,000 displaced overseas Filipino workers after several companies in the Gulf state went bankrupt in 2015 and 2016, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said.
In a roundtable interview with reporters before leaving Saudi Arabia on Friday morning, Marcos made an update on the government’s efforts to make sure that the Middle Eastern country would pay the migrant workers.
“(Saudi Arabia) is now processing the backpay,” Marcos said.
“In concept, in principle, Saudi Arabia will pay for the insurance claims of those workers from those companies that went bankrupt due to Covid-19. So that will continue to go. We will finish that,” Marcos added.
While the Philippines is already waiting for the Arab country to finalize everything, Marcos said he could not disclose the details of the settlement issues since it depends on the internal processes in Saudi Arabia.
“But, again, I know for a fact that they will be paid. It’s just a question of when,” he added.
The Crown Prince committed last year during his bilateral meeting with President Marcos at the APEC Summit in Bangkok, Thailand some 2 billion riyals for OFWs who were affected when their construction firms went bankrupt.