CHED: 45 students stranded in Boracay, back in Manila

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Department of Tourism (DOT) were able to bring 45 Hotel and Restaurant Management students, stranded in Boracay during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), back to Manila.

In a statement, CHED added that a total of 64 stranded students in Boracay from Regions 1, 2, 3, 8, 11, 12 and CAR.

But due to limited flight availability, only 45 were accommodated in the sweeper flights organized by the Tourism department.

The remaining students will remain in Boracay until a flight to their provinces is available and when there is assurance that their respective local governments will allow them to enter the province.

CHED said that transporting the stranded students to their respective provinces are handled by their respective schools.

The stranded students who have safely returned to Manila today are from the following colleges/universities, as recorded by the DOT-Boracay:

• 28 from Nueva Ecija University of Science & Technology
• 7 from Lorma Colleges, La Union
• 6 from Nueva Vizcaya State University
• 4 from Benguet State University

The seven students from Lorma Colleges in La Union will be quarantined in a hotel in San Fernando, La Union and monitored by the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO)

Four students from Benguet State University will be quarantined at their university’s guest house.

The rest of the students will be brought to their respective homes where they will undergo the 14-day mandatory quarantine.

“The Commission thanks the efforts of Department of Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat and their Field Office in Boracay for the timely sweeper flight and the officials of the concerned HEIs and the CHED Regional Offices (CHEDROs)- I, II, III, CAR and VI for working together to help bring the students back to their families,” said CHED Chairman J. Prospero E. De Vera III.

“We are continuously monitoring the plight of stranded students all over the country and will assure their families that we will do everything to bring them home,” he added.

The rest of the stranded students in Boracay are: five from Saint Joseph College of Maasin, Leyte; three from the University of Mindanao; seven from Colegio de Kidapawan and; four from STI College Cotabato are awaiting available sweeper flights.

De Vera said stranded students can log on to the ‘CHED Survey on Stranded Students in the Philippines during the ECQ or coordinate with their schools. -- BAP, GMA News