DOT-NCR assists OFWs heading home after quarantine in Metro Manila

DOT-NCR personnel assists OFWs who have tested negative of COVID-19 and undergone 14-day quarantine, back home to their respective provinces. (Photo by DOT-NCR)

PARANAQUE CITY, May 26 (PIA) --The Department of Tourism’s National Capital Region Office (DOT-NCR) is working double time at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport MIAA (NAIA) to assist some 24,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), who are heading home to various domestic destinations in Visayas and Mindanao after testing negative in the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and completing their mandatory 14-day quarantine in NCR.

In a statement, DOT-NCR Regional Director Woodrow C. Maquiling, Jr., the mass transport of OFWs is a result of the directive of President Rodrigo R. Duterte to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) against COVID-19 and other government agencies to bring the OFWs back home to their families.

The DOT-NCR, as member of the NAIA One-Stop-Shop (OSS), is on duty to help assist these OFWs, with some 8,000 scheduled to leave NCR per day.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) leading the OSS, is utilizing all modes of transportation, from air, sea, and land, to bring home all 24,000 OFWs, who have resulted negative in their RT-PCR.

                    Some of the OFWs ready to board their flights that will bring them home.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), OWWA Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and Department of Labor and Employment - DOLE are tasked to fetch OFWs from their quarantine facility and bring them to the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX) and the NAIA Terminals to for their scheduled buses or flights back to their respective provinces.

E-jeepneys from Star 8 Green Technology Corporation are on standby at the NAIA as contingency support.

The OFWs are required to show copy of their quarantine certificate (QC) from the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) or a certification that attests that they are in the list of the PCG who tested negative from COVID-19 test.

More than 200 buses heading to different provinces of Luzon are on standby already at PITX, particularly to Bicol, Ilocos Region, Isabela, Baguio, Quezon, Cavite, Bataan, Batangas, Laguna, Tuguegarao, Cagayan, and Nueva Ecija.

Meanwhile,  the Department of Transportation - Philippines (DOTr) and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) booked a total of 19 sweeper flights going to Cagayan de Oro, Tacloban, Bacolod, Davao, Cebu, Iloilo and Zamboanga to bring the OFWs back home..

More domestic destinations are scheduled for the next three days starting today, while a One-Stop-Shop of all government agencies are in place in the NAIA, PITX and seaport to help these OFWs who will leave the NCR.

Meanwhile, the DILG assures that all local government units (LGUs) have been informed about these mass transport of OFWs to various localities, mostly outside of Luzon. All LGUs are advised to accept them as long as all required documents are shown by each OFW. Returning OFWs with incomplete requirement or no documents on hand are required to go on quarantine as needed by the LGU in their respective locality, while waiting for results. (DOT-NCR/PIA-NCR)

 

Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)