All LSIs will be home for Christmas, Malacañang exec says

A Palace official said Saturday that at the rate the initiative to send locally stranded individuals (LSIs) to their respective provinces is going, all will be celebrating Christmas with their families.

Presidential Management Staff Assistant Secretary Joseph Encabo, the lead convener of the Hatid Tulong initiative for individuals affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns, told Super Radyo dzBB on Saturday that there are only less than 500 remaining LSIs nationwide.

He said, “Nasa less than 500 ang nasa aming listahan na kaya pa naming pauwiin. By early October, when the moratorium for the sending off of LSIs home will be lifted, magkakaroon tayo ng cluster sendoff ng remaining individuals at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

Encabo said there are only 61 LSIs at the CCP, the national center of the Hatid Tulong initiative. Half of the number is from Region 8 (Eastern Visayas), and the remaining half are from Cotabato, Davao City, and other provinces in Mindanao.     

“Based on our technical assessment, there are less than 500 LSIs nationwide that we are trying to accommodate,” he said, clarifying that stranded individuals are classified in various descriptions.”

There are those who are stranded in Metro Manila due to the lockdowns, and those who are “stranded” elsewhere and are going back to the National Capital Region and neighboring regions and provinces.

He said, these are the people working elsewhere and have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, but they are also being accommodated in the Hatid Tulong initiative.

So far, he said, the initiative has already sent home between 130,000 to 135,000 LSIs since its operations began in May, and that the “closing report” is due in October. —LBG, GMA News