Returning OFWs free from COVID-19, Año ensures

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are returning to their home provinces are safe and free from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Interior Secretary Eduardo Año assured the public Tuesday.

"Kami naman we'll make sure na 'yung mga umuuwi diyan ay talagang ligtas at mayroon nang result ng mga PCR test na negative, lalo na 'yung mga OFW," Año said during a Laging Handa press briefing.

He also warned local government units that would not accept returning OFWs amid the health crisis.

"'Yung sasabihin ninyo na zero COVID kami kaya 'di kami tatanggap ng OFW, hanggang pier lang kayo, hindi pupuwede 'yan. I myself will make sure na hahabulin ko kayo dahil hindi 'yan in accordance sa Bayanihan Act at sa ipinagutos ng Pangulo," he said.

Earlier, the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP) said the returning OFWs must still undergo quarantine and be subjected for COVID-19 testing once they arrive in their home province.

According to Marinduque Governor Presbitero Velasco, LPP president, most of the provincial governments will require returning OFWs to undergo quarantine either in a designated facility or at their respective home.

President Rodrigo Duterte gave government agencies one week to bring a total of 24,000 OFWs back to their home provinces as most of them have been stranded in quarantine facilities in Metro Manila for more than a month.

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) administrator Hans Leo Cacdac has been saying that these OFWs already tested negative in a PCR-based test, which means they are free from the disease.—AOL, GMA News