Capitol scampers to prepare as hundreds of OFWs arrive today

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

After weeks of waiting, Ilonggo Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) stranded in Metro Manila will return to Iloilo on April 29, 2020.

In a radio interview on Monday, Defensor confirmed that the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) had communicated with him on the return of the OFWs.

Based on an urgent memorandum from the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), 150 OFWS from Iloilo (including 30 from Iloilo City) will arrive at the Port of Iloilo, 28 Aklan OFWs, 29 Antique residents, two from Guimaras and 25 from Capiz.

Defensor had initially said that he told the OCD and OWWA to bar the return of OFWs as he only received the information Monday morning.

He said he does not want to risk adding more confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Iloilo.

The OCD and OWWA regional offices have denied knowing the delivery of the memorandum.

The OFWs’ authority to travel to Iloilo dated April 24 was signed by Secretary Carlito Galvez, chief implementer of the IATF-EID’s COVID-19 National Action Plan.

Defensor said he was surprised that the repatriation would proceed but he assured that the Regional IATF is preparing.

“We were also surprised. But the advice we received from the OCD and the IATF was that the [transport of the OFWs from Manila] would proceed, and that they would be leaving at 3 p.m. on Monday. The memorandum just came to me [Monday morning] that there will be OFWs arriving [on Tuesday]. We’ve already established with the OWWA that we would coordinate when they should be repatriated back here so we can prepare the facilities. The information came so suddenly but we haven’t had the facilities prepared, so we’re rushing the preparations on Wednesday,” he said.

 

QUARANTINE FACILITIES

Defensor also confirmed that the provincial government, together with the OCD and OWWA, are preparing quarantine facilities where the returning OFWs will be staying in the meantime.

He said that these facilities had already been identified during the Regional IATF meeting on April 23.

“The IATF is now securing the hotels that we have identified to serve as common quarantine facilities. There should already be these facilities because we’ve identified them since last week when we met with the Regional IATF. We pushed that the case should be closed,” he said.

The Department of Tourism had previously confirmed with local governments that several hotels in Iloilo City – Goldberry Hotel in City Proper, GT Hotels in City Proper and Jaro districts, Injap Tower Hotel, J7 and J7 Plaza Hotels in Mandurriao district and Urban Inn in La Paz district – volunteered to become quarantine facilities for OFWs.

He said he had also asked the Department of Health (DOH) to test the OFWs.

“We’ve asked the DOH to have them tested. Their protocol is to test only those with symptoms but I pleaded with them to still test even those without the symptoms. If we test them and we’ve made sure that they would be negative for COVID-19, then we could have a basis to even send them home to their families. That would also ease the capacity of our quarantine facilities,” he said.

DOH data indicated that Iloilo has 20 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with seven active cases, nine recoveries, and four deaths.