MORE than 100,000 overseas Filipinos have been repatriated since February this year when the government ramped up its efforts to bring back those who were affected or have lost their work due to the economic downturn brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs showed that as of August 1, the number of repatriates has reached 115,793 with 68,487 of them (59.15 percent) land-based workers and 47,306 (40.85) percent sea-based workers.
The latest to arrive were 300 repatriated from Qatar on Saturday.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the repatriation efforts will continue as he encouraged overseas Filipinos who want to return home to contact the nearest Philippine embassy or consulate general in their area.
“I assure our people that the DFA and our embassies and consulates abroad will do whatever it takes to bring our distressed Filipinos home. We did. We will,” Locsin said, adding this is the largest kind of repatriation ever undertaken by the department.
The rest of the world is astonished at the scale and success of our repatriation. It’s never been done before that even the International Organization for Migration said to us, “you are the model of the world,” he added.
DFA Undersecretary Saral Lou Arriola earlier told the House committee on public accounts that they might need more funds for the program since out of the DFA’s P1 billion assistance-to-nationals fund, only P232.9 million remain.
She said that at the rate of repatriation, the department’s funds would not be enough, adding they are eyeing more repatriation in the coming days.
