Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana yesterday dismissed rumors that overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East have resorted to begging for food while awaiting repatriation because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A video allegedly showing the hardships of the OFWs was uploaded on Facebook. The video showed them searching for food in trash cans and begging in villas of wealthy Arab men and well-off Filipinos in the Middle East.
“Hindi naman namamalimos. Naghihirap lang sila dahil nawalan sila ng trabaho,” Lorenzana said on the sidelines of the walk-through of a modular testing laboratory at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.
Lorenzana, chairman of the National Action Plan on COVID-19, assured the OFWs that the government has been coordinating with the embassies and labor attaches to bring them home the soonest time possible.
“‘Yung ating labor attaches at embassy doon are taking care of our OFWs. Itong darating na linggo, dadamihan natin ang incoming flights para i-accommodate natin sila umuwi,” Lorenzana added.
There are around 40,000 OFWs who are expected to be reptriated in the coming weeks, according to Lorenzana.
They include workers in the Middle East, Carribean, Florida in United States, and Canada among others.
“They will be brought home as soon as possible,” Lorenzana said. (Martin Sadongdong)