COVID-19 lockdown: Stuck in Cebu City, Ilonggo OFW dreams of home

Ilonggo OFW Rex Villanueva has been stranded in Cebu for more than a month due to the quarantine measure. Photo courtesy of Rex Villanueva

ILOILO CITY — Ilonggo seafarer Rex Villanueva was eager to go home after being away for almost eight months.

He traveled for two days from Brazil and arrived in Cebu on March 18 where he was supposed to take a flight to Iloilo.

But Cebu had by then already locked its borders with its neighboring provinces, leaving Villanueva stranded in the city where he didn’t know a soul.

For more than a month, he has been waiting and asking for help from government agencies to help him and other stranded overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) come home to their families.

There was no accommodation or other assistance offered by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and other government agencies to the OFWs when they arrived.

Villanueva stayed for three days with two other OFWs from Iloilo in a condominium unit on Mactan Island, splitting the P1,800 per day fee.

They were told that they had to find another place because transient guests were no longer welcome because of quarantine rules.

They were able to find a house in Cebu City and paid P800 per day but had to leave again after three days as OFWs were not allowed to stay there any more.

One of Villanueva’s companions was able to contact a fellow Ilonggo in Cebu City who offered a one-room house for free. They were also provided water and a rice cooker.

“There’s one bed in the house and I sleep on the floor,” Villanueva told the INQUIRER.

He was supposed to be on board a vessel transporting OFWs from Cebu which arrived in Iloilo on April 8 but he was not able to get a travel pass on time.

The arrival of the 47 OFWs drew controversy and the ire of Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas after one of them tested positive for coronavirus.

Two more OFWs subsequently tested positive in results released on April 18.

Treñas accused the OWWA of violating protocols set by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The flight to Iloilo of a separate batch of 100 OFWs stranded in Manila set on April 14 was called off after Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor and 35 of the province’s 43 mayors said they would not allow the plane to land.

OWWA Administrator Hans Cacdac said in a statement that protocol was followed and coordination with local governments was made.

He said the Department of Health’s (DOH) Bureau of Quarantine and the Cebu City health department issued certificates that the OFWs showed no symptoms and had finished quarantine in Cebu.

Cacdac also listed OWW achievements. He said since the entire island of Luzon had been put in enhanced community quarantine last March 15, “we have aided around 10,000 stranded OFWs.”

“They are OFWs we have personally transported, fed, accommodated, befriended, and kept company during these difficult times,” he said.

In a resolution issued on April 13, the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council of Western Visayas issued protocols mandating mandatory COVID-19 testing for OFWs prior to their transport to the region.

The OFWs need to undergo a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test prior to departure from their port of entry in the Philippines and only those who test negative would be allowed to leave and be given entry to the region.

Those who arrive in Iloilo will also be required to go on 14-day quarantine and must have no symptoms when they depart for the province, the resolution said.

Villanueva said he does not know when he can go home to Iloilo as he is still waiting for word from the OWWA.

Last Thursday (April 16), a representative from the DOH in Central Visayas called him to schedule a PCR test. By that time, he had already spent P10,000 for his stay in Cebu.

It was money he planned to spend on more training programs for ship electricians.

Villanueva longs to come home to his family and be with his wife Rhodora and their 18-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter.

The couple talks every day by video chat for updates. “We will have just to sacrifice for now,” he told his family.

Edited by TSB