AS NEW BATCH OF OFWS ARRIVE: City, provinces differ on quarantine rules

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

The Western Visayas Regional Task Force on COVID-19 (WVRTF) confirmed that 42 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) will arrive at the Port of Iloilo in Iloilo City today, May 9.

WVRTF spokesperson Atty. Roy Villa confirmed that the 16 OFWs from Iloilo City, 22 from Iloilo province, and four from Guimaras left Manila on May 7 at 10 p.m. and are set to arrive anytime today.

The arrival of the OFWs was first confirmed on May 7 by Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, who said that coordination between the WVRTF and local government units (LGU) was going well.

Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) Regional Director Jose Venancio Vero initially confirmed in an interview with Aksyon Radyo on the same day the arrival of the 45 OFWs.

Treñas previously expressed confusion and dismay over protocols of the WVRTF and the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATFMEID) on OFW repatriations.

“I think coordination is now going well. I think they are expecting 50 and out of those, [16] are from Iloilo City. We will know once they will get here. We will bring them all to one hotel here in the city, and my instruction was to prepare hygiene kits, heaters so they can make coffee,” he said.

Treñas said that all OFWs, including the next batches, will be brought to their designated quarantine facility to have their samples collected for Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing.

OFWs from the city who will yield negative results for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) will be sent home to finish the 14-day mandatory quarantine.

The previous batch of OFWs who arrived on April 29 is currently quarantined in a hotel in Iloilo City, including those who tested negative.

“We follow the same protocol, RT-PCR, and then they are sent home to their families, they will be completing their 14-day quarantine there. All of them, whether from [Iloilo City] or [Iloilo province] or Guimaras, when they arrive, swab [samples] will be taken from them. After that, they will be quarantined there,” Treñas said.

He further clarified that sending residents home will only be for city residents, and questions for Iloilo province should be directed to the provincial government.

“The protocol wherein we will be sending them home when they test negative, that’s only for residents of the city. I’m not sure with the province. The province will decide if they will order [the OFWs] to stay or to go. But for me, when results say that they’re negative, their family can fetch them and they’ll just complete their 14-day quarantine in their homes. We have to give them consideration, they came from overseas, they haven’t gone home in a long time and they spent a lot of time waiting in Manila, so when they get home and their RT-PCR results say they’re negative, then let’s allow them to go back to their houses,” he said.

 

 

‘COMPLETE QUARANTINE IN HOTELS’

While the city will allow OFWs who tested negative for COVID-19 to go homes, Iloilo and Guimaras provinces will push for the 14-day quarantine outside their jurisdictions no matter the results.

Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. said that while the province originally wanted to have OFWs who are negative for the virus to undergo home quarantine, they were advised that it would be better to have them stay at the quarantine facilities for a while.

But Defensor said this may change depending on the results and on situations in their own homes.

“Initially, we thought of having them undergo home quarantine, but we were advised by the [Department of Health] that it would be best for them to stay at the quarantine facilities for a while. But that may change, because if they show double negative results [in RT-PCR testing], maybe it would be even better for them to do home quarantine. That also depends on the situations in their homes, on a case-to-case basis, there are home settings that wouldn’t be well for them,” Defensor said.

Guimaras Vice-Governor John Edward Gando said that they will follow the policy of the Office of Civil Defense and will also have their OFW residents complete the 14-day quarantine before going home.

“As per [OCD] policy, they should finish quarantine in Iloilo City,” Gando said.

DOH data indicated that as of May 7, there are 23 confirmed COVID-19 cases among OFW repatriates in Western Visayas, with 21 active cases and two recoveries.