Duterte gives agencies a week to send 24,000 quarantined OFWs home

- Advertisement -

PRESIDENT Duterte has given government agencies a week to secure certificates for and test results for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) of some 24,000 repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and ensure their return to their homes, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said on Monday.

The certification is proof than an OFW has completed the 14-day mandatory quarantine, which will enable him or her to leave a quarantine facility and return home.

After Duterte issued the ultimatum, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III launched a program that targets to bring the OFWs, who have tested negative and who have completed the quarantine period, to their homes in three days.

- Advertisement -

As of noon on Monday, Bello said, about 6,000 OFWs were on their way home.

“There are already 2,500 OFWs already at the airport, while 3,500 are on the bus terminals for their scheduled flight and road travel, respectively,” he said.

Roque, on radio and TV interviews including the “Laging Handa” public briefing, said the President also ordered the agencies to increase the country’s capacity for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing and expand the testing nationwide so that OFWs may directly go home to their provinces where they could take the COVID-19 test and undergo their quarantine.

The directive was issued in anticipation of the arrival of some 43,000 Filipinos from abroad until June.

Roque said Duterte issued the order amid increasing complaints from OFWs who remain in hotels and ships in Metro Manila, which have been converted into quarantine facilities, about the delay in the release of their test results and certification of completion of the quarantine.

He said the President no longer asked for reasons for the delay and just ordered the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Health (DOH), and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to expedite the return to the provinces of the OFWs.

Roque said Duterte has given the agencies the authority to use government transportation resources like buses, airplanes, and ships to bring the OFWS  home. He said the government agencies may also tap private vehicles, as guaranteed under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, if needed.

Roque said those who would be allowed to return home should obtain a negative result in their PCR test.

He said the President agrees there is a need to subject the returning OFWs to COVID tests but it is not acceptable to subject them to more difficulty.

Roque said Duterte expects none of the 24,000 OFWs currently in the quarantine facilities in Metro Manila to be still be there in a week’s time. He said many would be held accountable if they failed to comply with the President’s directive

TESTING CAPACITY

Roque said the government has finally surpassed its goal of conducting 30,000 coronavirus tests daily by May 31 but later clarified that what he meant was the country reached a testing capacity of 32,100 tests a day on May 20.

“I was referring to our national testing capacity, which is now at 32,000 per day, when I earlier mentioned that we have already conducted and surpassed the 30,000 target last May 20…The goal we set, through the Test, Trace, Treat (T3) Coalition, was to reach a testing capacity of 30,000 by May 30,” he said.

The Department of Health said the country’s estimated maximum testing capacity is at 32,000 daily but that the actual testing capacity is between 8,500 to 9,500 a day.

Roque said the government is continuing its efforts to increase the number of daily tests through an increase in the accreditation of laboratories and the availability of more automated machines

“The next step is to improve efficiency so that our laboratories are capable of using that capacity to the highest level possible. To achieve this, we need to improve our human resources through proficiency training, especially on the use of automated machine, improve our supply chain management of critical supplies for our labs, and improve our data management to verify and release results faster,” he said.

THREE-DAY PROGRAM

- Advertisement -spot_img

Bello said that under the “3-day OFW Return Program,” a composite team from the Philippine Coast Guard and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will arrange in the next three days daily trips for 8,000 OFWs a day via the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

This means there will be bus trips to the Bicol, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley,and Central Luzon regions and the Cordillera Administrative Region that will be made available to OFWs. Flights to Cagayan de Oro City, Tacloban City, Bacolod City, Davao, Cebu, Iloilo, and Zamboanga will also be arranged for OFWs.

Bello said one-stop-shops will also be established at the bus and air ports to ensure speedy arrangements for the OFWs’ return home.

“The OFWs only need to present their quarantine passes from the Bureau of Quarantine or from the PCG’s negative list from COVID-19 to qualify in the return program,” said Bello.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Monday said around 300,000 OFWs are due to return to the country this year as they became unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Año said the OFWs are being sent home by their employers.

“Buong mundo kasi ang naka-lockdown, so pinapauwi talaga yung mga workers, hindi lang Pilipinas kundi ibat-ibang country. (The entire world is in a lockdown so these workers are being sent home, not only from Philippines but from other countries),” said Año.

Año also urged the public not to be alarmed by the movement of a large number of OFWs, who he said will be going home aboard buses, planes and ships. He said checkpoints have been notified about the arrival of OFWs and the arrivals have been coordinated with local government units.

PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa said the PNP has notified police units not to hamper the movement of the 24,000 OFWs when they pass checkpoints.

Gamboa said the OFWs must present their identification cards if they are checked at checkpoints.

Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, PNP deputy chief for operations and concurrent commander of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield, said police commanders should ensure the smooth passage of the OFWs in their areas.

“If it requires that we escort the vehicles of our returning OFWs, so be it,” said Eleazar, noting that the instruction of Año and Gamboa “is to ensure that we provide all the necessary assistance for them on their travel back home.” — With Gerard Naval and Victor Reyes

 

 

Author

- Advertisement -

Share post: