FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. yesterday appealed to local government units not to subject repatriated overseas Filipino workers to a series of swab tests to ensure that they are not carriers of the COVID-19 virus.
Locsin issued the appeal after his office received complaints from returning OFWs that they were being made to undergo several swab tests aside from prolonged quarantine.
He said some returning OFWs were made to undergo another two weeks of quarantine by some LGUs when they arrived after undergoing a similar number of weeks in quarantine in Manila after their arrival in the country.
“Have a little pity for our people. I am asking our LGUs to please not repeat the ordeal that our kababayan OFWs are going through,” Locsin said.
Though he said he understands the LGUs’ move was meant to safeguard their communities from the virus, Locsin said making the repatriates undergo a series of swab tests plus prolonged quarantine doesn’t make sense.
“You cannot blame these LGUs but I think they should also rethink,” he said.
Fees for the swab tests for returning OFWs are shouldered by their agencies and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
On Monday afternoon, a chartered flight from Lebanon carrying 386 Filipino workers, including the remains of four of those killed in last week’s massive blasts in Beirut, arrived in Manila via Qatar Airways.
Locsin, along with DFA Undersecretaries Brigido Dulay and Sarah Lou Arriola, welcomed the latest repatriates at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
The DFA on Sunday said also among the group were 20 Filipinos who were among the 47 injured in the deadly blasts.
Since the global COVID-19 outbreak, the Philippine government has repatriated 135,290 Filipinos, 52,639 of them sea-based and 82,651 land-based.
