Cordillera OFWs ask gov’t to lift ban in selected Chinese cities

BAGUIO CITY –– Cordillera migrant workers, who were stranded here due to a China travel ban, urged the government to allow them to return to Chinese provinces and cities that have proven to be safe from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Marissa Palma, a language consultant examiner of the British Council, said she has worked for 15 years in Beijing, which did not suffer as badly as Wuhan City, the ground zero of the virus that is infecting countries worldwide.

But Palma has been stuck here since January, since her return home to the Benguet town of Buguias.

The British Council has given many of their employees’ alternative assignments that could be accomplished online, she said.

“But I don’t know how long that would last. My contract is about to expire and renewing my visa requires me to be physically in Beijing,” Palma said during a consultation organized by Esther Margaux Uson, deputy administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration on Tuesday (Mar. 10).

About 60 Cordillera workers attended the assembly, all complaining that the ban threatened their jobs. One of them said she needed to return to China, where her children have been residing.

Another worker said the P10,000 assistance was welcome, but sufficient only for a week’s house expense and could not pay for her children’s tuition.

Palma signed an online petition seeking a new COVID-19 policy regarding China. “They should determine which [Chinese] cities are actually infected. Beijing is safe. They have processes in place. In every office, they employ temperature checks. If you fail, you can’t enter and they have imposed [a social distancing protocol] so every office worker has to be a meter away from a colleague,” she said.

Manuela Peña, OWWA Cordillera director, said 50 percent of the stranded China-based workers are teachers and could be offered jobs in business process outsourcing companies at the Baguio City Economic Zone.

The Department of Labor and Employment is also negotiating with English language schools operated here by South Koreans, to determine if they could take in some of the stranded workers, said Exequiel Ronie Guzman, DOLE Cordillera director.

Edited by Lzb