The Philippines’ Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reports that 25,002 OFWs have been successfully sent back to their home provinces through the “Hatid Probinsya” program in collaboration with several government agencies and local government units (LGUs).
This follows the directives of President Rodrigo Duterte who tasked DOLE and related agencies to ensure that all OFWs will be reunited with their families within one week.
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Government agencies provided all methods of transport for OFWs as 9,595 of them were transported by air; 7,900 OFWs travelled by land, and 385 individuals were transported by sea. The remaining 6,574 OFWs had been fetched by their relatives from their government-assigned quarantine facilities in Manila, as per reports from the Philippine News Agency.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III stated that all OFWs sent home have already completed their 14-day mandatory quarantine and have already tested negative for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
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To date, over 8,000 seafarers who were previously stranded in 26 cruise ships have returned home with around 200 of them still on board waiting for their test results.
During their 14-day quarantine, all OFWs were provided with free food, accommodation, and transportation from agencies including DOLE’s Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), and in coordination with other government agencies, Philippine recruitment agencies (PRAs) and licensed manning agencies (LMAs).
