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DILG appeals to hotels in Metro Manila to accept 4,000 arriving seafarers

The Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) is appealing to the five-star hotels in Metro Manila to accommodate thousands of Filipino seafarers from cruise ships who will be displaced by the pandemic COVID-19 disease.
 
Interior Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III, a member of the IATF, said they will start contacting the five-star hotels tomorrow.
 
Earlier, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. estimate that around 4,000 Filipino seafarers are going to be home in the next few weeks, as the billion-dollar cruise industry worldwide takes the hit from the pandemic.
RELATED STORY: DFA: 370 Filipino crew from Italy arrive in Manila
 
Filipino sailors from three cruise liners docked in Italy have already arrived in Manila last night — 248 from MV Costa Luminosa, 122 from MV Grandiose and MV Opera.
 
Densing said most of the seafarers arriving are based in the Visayas and Mindanao and they would have no place to stay in Metro Manila because of the ongoing Luzon-wide lockdown.
 
“I hope you give us better rates — na kaya ng gobyerno path na kung employers of seafarers,” Densing said in his Facebook Live post.
READ ON: Locsin: No accommodation for hundreds of Filipino ship crew arriving in PHL
 
The DFA said the 370 seafarers who arrived last night were found to be asymptomatic before they boarded the chartered flight that brought them to Manila. Two days ago, 13 Filipino seafarers from Spain have also arrived. It was not known if they were quarantined.
 
Aside from those who arrived recently, the DFA is awaiting the arrival of 530 Filipino crew of Costa Favolosa and Costa Magica cruise ships.
Locsin earlier shared that the Department of Health wanted the accommodation for Filipino cruise ship crews to be “individual isolation wards with room service.” The Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration, he said, would only get in touch with the accommodations once they get the green light from the DOH.

Staff Report

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