24,000 OFWs UNDER QUARANTINE ALLOWED TO GO HOME

Starting today, May 25, 2020 (Monday), bus trips to Bicol, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, CAR, and Central Luzon will be made available while flights to Cagayan de Oro, Tacloban, Bacolod, Davao, Cebu, Iloilo and Zamboanga will be arranged for flights until Wednesday to allow 24,000 OFWs now under quarantine in various sites to go home.

More bus rides and flights will be made available for the OFWs with a One-Stop-Shop to be located in the bus and flight sites to ensure the speedy arrangements for the freeing program, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said.

The 3-day OFW Return Program is a government program to ensure the safe return of those repatriated OFWs under mandatory quarantine to their families and loved ones amid the Covid-19. Those to be sent home were those whose swap or RCT-PCR tests were negative.

Upon instruction of President Rodrigo Duterte, the composite team of Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will arrange in the next three days for daily trips for 8,000 OFWs via the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX) and the NAIA Terminal.

The OFWs need to present their quarantine passes from the Bureau of Quarantine or from the PCG’s negative list from COVID-19 to qualify in the return program. #COVID19PH