By RAYMUND ANTONIO * GENALYN KABILING
Concerned government agencies are working to send home the 24,000 quarantined overseas Filipino workers within three days, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said yesterday.
Bello made the announcement in response to President Duterte’s directive to send back all OFWs stuck in Metro Manila quarantine centers to their homes within a week.
The Labor Secretary is facilitating the transportation of OFWs’ return to their home provinces. “We will not wait for one week period na utos ng Pangulo. Tapusin po natin at the rate of 8,000 (OFWs) per day,” Bello said in an interview over DZBB.
“Ang sabi nga ng ating Pangulo, ‘tiyakin nyo ang kalusugan at kalagayan ng ating mga OFWs at nami-miss ng mga pamilya ’yan tapos hindi n’yo tinutulungan. Kaya pipilitin namin ngayon ipauwi na sila,” he said.
Duterte specifically ordered the Department of Labor and Employment, Overseas Workers and Welfare Administration, and the Department of Health to do the job.
These OFWs had to endure the long confinement in quarantine facilities beyond the mandatory 14-day isolation period due to the delay in the release of their coronavirus test results.
Bello said they have coordinated with the Department of Interior and Local Government and manning agencies to fast-track the process. “The transportation facilities are now ready,” the Labor official noted.
OWWA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said efforts are underway to bring the OFWs to their home provinces, with 3,500 flights per day starting yesterday.
Airports will be open and flights will be mounted from Manila to Cebu, Iloilo, Davao City, General Santos City, Bacolod City, Cagayan de Oro City, and Zamboanga City.
Cacdac expressed confidence that they can bring home the repatriated OFWs ahead of the deadline. “Kakayanin kasi sapat iyong 3,500 flights a day at saka the boats and buses.”
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the President received a deluge of complaints from OFWs who are unable to return to their homes since they are still waiting for the test results in the quarantine centers.
The government has required returning OFWs to undergo coronavirus testing and 14-day facility-based quarantine as a precaution against the spread of the disease.
OFWs are given health clearances before they are allowed to return to their hometowns.
To speed up the testing process, the President has also directed authorities to strengthen the polymerase chain reaction testing capacity in the provinces, not just in Metro Manila, according to Roque.
With the proposed establishment of more testing facilities in the provinces, he said Filipino repatriates can go straight to their hometowns and take the coronavirus test there.
“Sangayon ang Presidente na kinakailangan na lahat ng ating manggagawa ay sumailalim sa COVID-19 test, pero sabi niya, hindi katanggap-tanggap na napakatagal ng proseso bago sila makauwi,” he added.
Earlier, chief implementer of the government’s coronavirus response, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., said they are stepping up preparations to prevent a second wave of coronavirus infections that may come from the influx of Filipino workers arriving from virus-hit countries.
He said as many as 500,000 OFWs displaced by the pandemic are estimated to possibly return to the country this year.
Galvez had earlier expressed concern that an additional 42,000 OFWs arriving this May and June may overwhelm the quarantine facilities in Metro Manila. Of 30,000 OFWs tested for the coronavirus, he said around 600 were found positive.
He said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, chairman of the National Task Force on COVID-19, has issued an order to declog the Metro Manila quarantine centers “within two weeks” to make room for the next batch of repatriates.