MORE TAHN 15,000 repatriates have returned to Western Visayas (Region 6) through the assistance of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) as of August 17.
On Tuesday's episode of the “Mugstoria Ta” hosted by Assistant Secretary Jonji Gonzales of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV), Labor information officer for Western Visayas Niezel Anen Sabrido said 11, 531 of the returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) are from Panay while 4,018 are from Negros Occidental.
Sabrido said repatriating the ROFs is a “big challenge”, especially that based on the record of the OWWA and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Western Visayas is one of the regions with the most overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the country.
However, with the active inter-agency task force on Covid-19 working together with the local government units (LGUs), the repatriation of ROFs is going smoothly, she added.
“I think Region 6 is very much prepared to cater to their needs, considering the very strong leadership of our interagency task force and the local governments in order to cater not just to our OFWs but LSIs (locally stranded individuals) as well,” Sabrido said.
She added that DOLE, OWWA, and the inter-agency task force have spent months crafting a protocol that “would fit the situation”.
Immediate coordination with concerned LGUs is done once there are arriving ROFs. The RFOs are picked up, either at the airport or pier, depending on their mode of transportation and are brought to their respective quarantine facility.
“They are being swabbed and have to undergo the 14-day quarantine depending on the result of their test,” she added.
Less than 10,000 ROFs have already availed of the one-time financial assistance to land-based and sea-based OFWs displaced by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.(
Under the DOLE-AKAP for OFWs, each qualified OFW can receive PHP10,000. Application for assistance is being done online. (
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