Duterte to LGUs: Cruel to keep repatriated OFWs from coming home over COVID-19 fears

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered local government officials to allow overseas Filipino workers who have been repatriated due to the COVID-19 pandemic to go home to their respective hometowns and provinces.

Duterte warned local executives that keeping the thousands of repatriated Filipino migrants from returning home would be a violation of the law.

"It is very cruel to deny them to go home," Duterte said.

"Do not impede the movement of people... You run the risk of getting sued criminally," he added.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano said the 24,000 OFWs who have been quarantined in the country and tested for COVID-19 using the PCR protocol have all been found negative of the coronavirus.

The repatriates who were stuck under quarantine

Some pregnant repatriates had been quarantined so long that they gave birth in isolation, according to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

Duterte earlier gave the concerned agencies one week to send home the 24,000 OFWs waiting for clearance.

“I am ordering you (LGUs) to accept them. Open the gates of your territories and allow the people and allow the Filipino to travel wherever they want,” Duterte said. - NB/BAP, GMA News