Mayor asks NIATF to ensure OFWs’ access to COVID test

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Mayor Evelio Leonardia asked Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Interagency Task Force Against COVID-19, to ensure access of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and returning residents to RT-PCR tests before they are sent home.

Leonardia, the interim executive vice president of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP,) aired his concern on repatriated OFWs with Galvez, who was the guest resource speaker at the special online meeting of the expanded National Executive Board (NEB) of ULAP on Tuesday.

Galvez made a presentation on “The Role of LGUs in Advancing the NAP (National Action Plans) vs. COVID-19.”

The mayor also asked about the processes and coordination between the Overseas Workers Welfare and Administration (OWWA) and other concerned agencies and LGU officials to facilitate the return of OFWS.

Galvez  commended Leonardia for instituting more stringent health protocols for returning OFWs in Bacolod City to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

“Sabi nga namin ni Sir Año [DILG Secretary Eduardo Año], we really praise you, Sir,” Galvez told Leonardia.

“We really wanted to appreciate your concern and also alam po natin na meron pong weaknesses ang ating testing. Even PCR testing ‘pag hindi po tama ang timing, this is only 70% accurate. Ganun din po yung anti-body test. Sometimes it is between 80% – 90% accurate. So yung ginagawa niyo po na protocol to have some sort of forced quarantine is very commendable po sir considering that you really wanted to ensure that all of your OFWs that would be coming to your community is free of COVID,” he added.

Galvez told Leonardia that LGUs have the prerogative on what health protocols to implement since the officials are the ones who know their constituents best.

Leonardia had earlier written to OWWA urging the agency to adopt a closer coordination with LGUs on facilitating the return of OFWs.

The mayor also wrote to the National Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, through Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, requesting for information on which lead agencies the Bacolod LGU can coordinate with regarding sea-based OFWs as against land-based OFWs because the recent organization of handlers for the repatriation program did not make this clear.

He said those OFWs approved by authorities in Manila to become part of any homecoming batch must comply with all the pre-boarding and post-disembarkation health protocols of the Bacolod LGU.

Among these protocols is that the OFW should have completed a 14-day quarantine during which he had not developed symptoms of COVID-19, and has tested negative for COVID-19 using the RT-PCR method, and remained asymptomatic upon boarding any transport for home, he added.

“We are willing to accept the repatriation of OFWs but [it should be done] in batches and in numbers acceptable to us so that any public health risks that may arise from these arrivals can still be managed within the City’s medical resources,” the mayor told OWWA.