Philippine government sets limit on OFW arrivals – 1,200 daily

The government will limit the arrival of Filipino workers from overseas to 1,200 daily after reports of congestion in facilities in Metro Manila.

Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana said they wanted to control the entry of returning overseas Filipinos including seafarers as 42,000 more were expected to arrive.

In President Duterte’s public address on Thursday night which was aired on Friday morning, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana reported that they can increase the number up to 2,000 individuals daily depending on the easing of facilities.

“Ang pinagtutuunan namin ng pansin ngayon ‘yung repatriation pa rin ng mga OFWs tsaka seafarers kasi ayaw natin maulit ang nangyari noong nakaraang buwan na naipon sila sa Manila at may inabot pa ng isang buwan (What we are focusing now is still the repatriation of the OFWs and seafarers because we don’t want them to be stuck in Manila like what happened last month, and there are others who got stuck for one month),” said Lorenzana, chairperson of the National Action Plan (NAP) on COVID-19.

“I-control lang natin ang pagdating siguro 1,200 a day. Kung medyo lumuwag pa we can increase to 1,500 or 2,000 para mabilis ang ating processing (We will control the arrival to 1,200 a day. If the [facilities ease up], we can increase to 1,500 or 2,000 so that the processing will be fast), he added.

According to Lorenzana, he met with Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano, and Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. among other concerned officials to fix the system for returning OFWs.

Lorenzana said returning OFWs can now expect faster results of their COVID-19 test as authorities aimed to send them home them within five days.

“Kapag dumating ‘yung OFW, maximum araw na manatili sila sa Manila ay limang araw lang. It could be less but the maximum is five days (If an OFW arrives, the maximum number of days s/he can stay in Manila is five days. It could be less but the maximum is five days),” he said.

He assured the President that there are enough testing facilities in Metro Manila to facilitate the mandatory testing of the returning OFWs.

Citing Bello, Lorenzana said around 42,000 more OFWs are expected to come home in the coming weeks.

Aside from the workers, there are also other overseas Filipinos (OFs) such as stranded tourists, students, and foreigners who are permanent residents in the Philippines who will be escorted back home by the government.