Administrative charges await local government officials who will deny entry of returning overseas Filipino workers to their respective hometowns, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra warned Wednesday.
“The president has already given instructions to all LGUs to accept the returning 24,000 OFWs to their hometowns,” GMA News quoted Guevarra as saying.
“If LGU officials continue to defy this directive, they may be held administratively and criminally liable for violations of the Bayanihan Act,” Guevarra added.
The order to send home OFWs stranded in Manila came from President Rodrigo Duterte. He assigned the Department of Labor and Employment, the Department of Health, and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to accomplish this task within seven days.
Some 7,500 OFWs have so far been brought home in the past two days, according to OWWA.
They are OFW returnees who have completed their 14-day quarantine in Metro Manila.
