OWWA optimistic it can meet deadline for sending stranded OFWs home to provinces

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) on Monday expressed confidence that it and other agencies will be able to send back to their home provinces the thousands of migrant workers stranded in Metro Manila amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Interviewed on Dobol B sa News TV, OWWA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said the Department of Transportation (DOTr) will assist them.

“Malaki po ang optimism namin. Again, hindi po ito mangyayari kung walang ganap na tulong sa DOTr,” Cacdac said.

He added that at least nine sweeper flights are scheduled to bring the OFWs home.

Five ships have already been designated to facilitate the travel of the repatriated OFWs, while buses are on standby at the Parañaque Integrated Transport Exchange (PITX), he said.

According to Cacdac, families themselves can pick up their stranded OFW relatives if they have a private vehicle and live near Metro Manila, where most quarantine facilities for OFWs are located.

Only OFWs with a test result certificate from the Department of Health (DOH) – Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) can go home, he said.

The driver of the private vehicle should present a digital copy of the OFW’s certificate to authorities at checkpoints.

“Sa tingin ko, in general, sang-ayon sa direktiba ng pangulo, please let's bring them home. Let's give them that golden pass to home,” Cacdac said.

“Imbes na haharangin, ay padaliin. Ibig sabihin, facilitation not regulation. Dahil ang pinakamahalaga dyan BOQ certificate na sila ay negatibo,” he added.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Monday vowed to send to their home provinces the 24,000 OFWs stuck in quarantine facilities for COVID-19 within three days.

This is after President Rodrigo Duterte gave the concerned agencies one week to let the 24,000 migrant workers waiting in Manila to go home.

The OFWs have completed their 14-day mandatory quarantine in quarantine facilities in Metro Manila after they were repatriated, but they have not yet been allowed to leave since their COVID-19 test results have not yet been released.

Some of them have been staying in the facilities for months. — Joviland Rita/BM, GMA News