ILOILO – This morning’s scheduled return here of some 100 Ilonggo overseas workers stranded in Metro Manila won’t push through.
Their health status – whether positive or not for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – is a big concern.
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Region 6 which is tasked to quarantine the returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is not yet ready to temporarily house them.
“The OFWs are supposed to arrive at 9 a.m. but aborted na ‘yung flight from Manila,” according to Melissa Banias, chief of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Region 6’s Capability Building Section.
Banias assured the OFWs’ families here that the OWWA’s central office in Metro Manila will take care of their stranded relatives, pointing out that no less than President Rodrigo Duterte issued an order that returning OFWs should not be turned away.
She also said the OWWA central office would be flying the OFWs to Iloilo by batch – and only after they have completed the 14-day quarantine in Metro Manila.
Once the OFWs reach Iloilo, however, they would be subjected to another two-week quarantine, said Banias.
From the Iloilo Airport, an OWWA Region 6 vehicle would take them to a local quarantine facility – likely the John B. Lacson Foundation Maritime University in Arevalo, Iloilo City, said Banias.
OCD Region 6 director Jose Roberto Nuñez told Panay News local government units (LGUs), too, should have protocols in place for returning OFWs.
“May OFWs na pauwi dito pero ang coordination natin, especially sa LGUs, dapat i-address muna natin,” said Nuñez.
Among others, he said, each LGU must have a ready quarantine facility.
For his part, Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. said he wanted to right away bring home from Metro Manila all the stranded Ilonggo OFWs but that he could not risk the safely of the families here of these OFWs and the public health in general.
Over the weekend, a newly-returned OFW of La Paz, Iloilo City tested positive for COVID-19.
Yesterday afternoon, Defensor asked the Iloilo Airport acting manager, Maria Luisa Palma, to not allow the landing of the airplane scheduled to bring to Iloilo today the stranded OFWs.
His move had the support of Iloilo mayors, said Defensor./PN
