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Agencies given a week to send OFWs homeBy Manila Times

President Rodrigo Duterte gave three government agencies one week to see to it that the repatriated 24,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), who have been lingering in quarantine facilities while waiting for the results of their coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) test, are sent home.

Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said on Monday that the President gave the orders to the Department of Labor and Employment, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Department of Health.

The President said the military’s ships and planes could be used to ferry the OFWs to their home provinces if private buses, airplanes and ships are not enough.

Roque said Duque was dismayed by the long wait that returnees have to endure before they are released from quarantine.

Some of the OFWs have been staying in isolation centers in Manila much longer than the required two weeks because the results of the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) swab have not been released.

Roque said OWWA has begun sending home OFWs.

He said those who live in Luzon would take the bus, and those destined for the Visayas and Mindanao would take a plane or ship.

Police LtGen. Guillermo Eleazar, the Joint Task Force Covid Shield commander, has directed police commanders to assist in transporting the OFWS to their hometowns.

“Our task is to ensure the safe and unhampered passage of our OFWs. We should make sure that they will be accorded with courtesy and respect that they deserve,” Eleazar said in a statement Monday.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año instructed the transport of 8,000 OFWs who have tested negative from May 25 to May 27.

Buses will be available for the OFWs en route to Bicol Region, Ilocos Region and other parts of Luzon.

Flights are available for those bound for the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Tacloban, Bacolod, Davao, Cebu, Iloilo and Zamboanga.

“If it requires that we escort the vehicles of our returning OFWs, so be it,” Eleazar said.
All 24,000 OFWs had tested negative, Año said in a radio interview.

“Some of them were in quarantine for two months here in Manila. I hope for the smooth passage of all our OFWs,” he said.

A total of 300,000 OFWs are expected to arrive home within the year, Año said.

With reports from DARWIN PESCO