Short answer. Not directly. Article 17 creates the Overseas Employment Development Board mainly to promote and place Filipino workers overseas on fair terms. As to the Welfare and Training Fund for Overseas Workers, the Board's role is narrower: it acts as secretariat for that fund's own Board of Trustees, not as the fund's administrator.
What the law says
Overseas Employment Development Board. An Overseas Employment Development Board is hereby created to undertake, in cooperation with relevant entities and agencies, a systematic program for overseas employment of Filipino workers in excess of domestic needs and to protect their rights to fair and equitable employment practices. It shall have the power and duty: To promote the overseas employment of Filipino workers through a comprehensive market promotion and development program; To secure the best possible terms and conditions of employment of Filipino contract workers on a government-to-government basis and to ensure compliance therewith; To recruit and place workers for overseas employment on a government-to-government arrangement and in such other sectors as policy may dictate; and To act as secretariat for the Board of Trustees of the Welfare and Training Fund for Overseas Workers.
Labor Code, Article 17 — Overseas Employment Development Board. Read the full provision →
What the Overseas Employment Development Board was created to do
Article 17 creates the Overseas Employment Development Board, tasking it with undertaking, in cooperation with relevant entities and agencies, a systematic program for the overseas employment of Filipino workers beyond what domestic needs require, and with protecting their rights to fair and equitable employment practices. The article positions the Board mainly as a promotional and protective body for Filipino workers seeking employment abroad, rather than as a fund-holding or benefits-administering agency in its own right.
Its four listed powers and duties
The article then lists four specific powers and duties. The Board is to promote overseas employment through a comprehensive market promotion and development program; to secure the best possible terms and conditions for Filipino contract workers hired on a government-to-government basis, and to ensure those terms are complied with; to recruit and place workers for overseas employment under government-to-government arrangements and in other sectors as policy may direct; and, finally, to act as secretariat for the Board of Trustees of the Welfare and Training Fund for Overseas Workers.
Its actual role in the Welfare and Training Fund
That fourth duty is the direct answer to the question. The Welfare and Training Fund for Overseas Workers is governed by its own Board of Trustees, a separate body under the article's own wording. The Overseas Employment Development Board's connection to that fund is limited to serving as its secretariat — providing the administrative and support function a secretariat performs for a governing board — rather than being the entity that itself runs or administers the fund.
Why secretariat is not the same as administrator
Acting as secretariat is a supporting, administrative role: handling records, coordination, and the practical machinery a board needs to function, rather than exercising the governing authority over the fund's policies and resources, which the article assigns to the Board of Trustees. So while the Overseas Employment Development Board is connected to the welfare and training fund through this secretariat function, describing it as the body that 'runs' the fund overstates what Article 17 actually assigns to it.