167 Filipinos to be repatriated from Macau arriving Saturday

One hundred sixty-seven Filipinos will be repatriated from Macau on Saturday, the Presidential Communications Operations Office said.

The Filipinos will board a chartered Air Macau flight which will arrive in the Philippines on Saturday afternoon, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The group is composed of 137 undocumented and irregular Filipino workers and 30 Filipino workers who are members of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration. 

"These are the Filipinos who were stranded in Macau when travel restrictions were imposed, and even after they were relaxed by Philippines no flights were available," DFA Assistant Secretary Ed Meñez said.

Meñez said those returning home are tourists and job-seekers who did not pass through the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) — the main government agency tasked to monitor and supervise labor recruitment agencies.

The Philippine government's travel restrictions on China — where the new virus originated — and on its special administrative regions, like Macau and Hong Kong, have resulted in the lack of direct flights back to Manila.

The Philippine Consulate General in Macau coordinated with the Macau government since February to arrange for the said repatriation flight.

Meanwhile, the Filipinos' needs have been attended to by the Consulate, authorities said.

The DFA said it will ensure, together with the Department of Health, that all Filipinos who will disembark will be asymptomatic for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Returning Filipinos will go through a two-week quarantine, Meñez said.

"They will be immediately brought to a medical facility for further investigation and treatment if necessary," he said. —with a report from Michaela del Callar/KG, GMA News