OFWs’ ordeal

EDITORIAL

The controversy on sending Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs) home to their provinces has gone fever pitch and netizens are questioning why it seems the government is not coordinating well with local government units on the matter related to quarantine policies to address the Covid-19 pandemic.          

For one, Secretary Menardo Guevarra ordered the National Prosecution Service to give priority to cases involving local government officials who continue to refuse entry to repatriated overseas Filipino workers who have been cleared of COVID-19.

               According to Guevarra, “The President has already given instructions to all LGUs to accept the returning 24,000 OFWs to their hometowns. If LGU officials continue to defy this directive, they may be held administratively and criminally liable for violations of the Bayanihan Act.”

After reports said that the workers were languishing in isolation centers well past the 14-day quarantine period, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Department of Labor and Employment, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and other involved agencies to send the 24,000 OFWs home in a week.

One such situation played out at a resort converted intoan OFWs quarantine facility in Dasmarinas, Cavite, where the disgruntled repatriates made placards out of carton boxes to beg the government to allow them to go home to their own provinces.

The President warned LGUs not to obstruct the movement of people because they run the risk of being sued criminally.

In a radio interview Wednesday, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año advised LGUs to allow the OFWs to undergo home quarantine, instead of isolating them away from their residences.

Año said that although the returning OFWs are already negative for COVID-19 based on test results they obtained after undergoing a 14-day mandatory quarantine, LGUs may impose an additional quarantine.

This does not mean, however, that LGUs can deny the OFWs entry into their areas of jurisdiction.

DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, meanwhile, said LGUs are encouraged to waive any fees for medical certificates being requested by stranded individuals who are already preparing to return to their hometowns or provinces.

He said rather than impose excessive fees, it would be better that LGUs issue medical certificates free of charge as a way to help the stranded individuals.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III also said he has formed a task group to help expedite the movement of OFWs from various quarantine facilities to their respective home destinations and facilitate the speedy processing of outbound workers.

Bello said he ordered the designation of additional personnel from DOLE’s regional and attached agencies to beef up the manpower requirement of the OWWA to ensure the smooth land and air transport and monitoring of OFWs from various quarantine facilities to their respective home destinations.

The move came following a directive from President Duterte to immediately send home all OFWs who tested negative for COVID-19.

About 24,000 OFWs have been kept in government quarantine facilities since their return to the country. Only 7,500 had been sent home as of Wednesday, OWWA officials said.

Most workers had complained of the slow release of their results and clearances after weeks and even months of quarantine and tests.

LGUs have already set rules on addressing returning residents to their towns and provinces and according to observers, the controversy wouldn’t have happened if there was proper coordination among government agencies and LGUs in the first place.