Batangas folk wary of OFWs quarantined in hotels, resorts

Hotels and resorts in Batangas province are being converted into quarantine areas for hundreds of returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) despite resistance from local communities wary of potential coronavirus carriers.

In Ibaan, which has yet to record a case of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), preparations to open an isolation site on a property of the provincial government have already spread panic in the town, according to Mayor Joy Salvame.

The site in the remote village of Malainin was used as an evacuation center for families displaced by the eruption of Taal Volcano last January. It was selected by the Department of Health from among the proposed locations for the quarantine of virus-infected residents in Batangas.

“What guarantee do we have [that hosting the facility] won’t have any cause-and-effect [to the local community]?” Salvame asked.

Gov. Hermilando Mandanas said the province would heed the national government’s call during the health crisis even as he was “surprised” by the arrival recently of about 230 OFWs in Batangas.

The workers, who were all classified as “land-based,” were repatriated from the Middle East and set to undergo a 14-day quarantine at a beach resort in Barangay Matabungkay, Lian town.

On Wednesday night, 16 buses carrying them were stopped at a police checkpoint by Matabungkay villagers, who feared that a suspected virus carrier was among the passengers, said Abigail Andres, provincial director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

The buses were forced to park overnight at Chateau Royal hotel in Nasugbu town, which was already hosting 306 OFWs, also repatriated, for the past two weeks.

The hotel provided meals for the newcomers but refused to accommodate them as it was already full.

“We cannot blame [the community’s apprehension] but we assure them there was no [carrier] on board. The OFWs had undergone quarantine [in their countries of origin] prior to their flights [to Manila],” Andres said.

On Thursday, the Lian municipal government eventually allowed the OFWs to proceed to Matabungkay, she said.

The Department of Tourism and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration have tapped the hotel industry, whose guest occupancy has plummeted since the disease outbreak, to quarantine the returning OFWs.

Hotel accommodation and meals are paid for by the national government.

Andres said most of the repatriates came from provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao.

In Iloilo City, Mayor Jerry Treñas and the local government’s COVID-19 task force have drawn flak for allowing the daughter of a city official, who later tested positive for the coronavirus, to fly in despite travel and quarantine restrictions.

Many people complained on social media about the mayor’s decision to allow the official’s 51-year-old daughter to attend the funeral of her mother.

They pointed out that more than 100 Ilonggo OFWs had been stranded in various places in the country, awaiting COVID-19 tests and travel clearances.

Some have been waiting to come home for more than a month, they said.

Treñas apologized for the city government’s approval of the trip, saying he was willing to face the consequences of that decision.

He said the approval was on the condition that the helicopter would also transport ribonucleic acid (RNA) kits used in COVID-19 tests.

“We need the RNA kits, but it is expensive to bring these in. That’s why we allowed her trip,” the mayor said.

The woman, an official a Metro Manila-based company, arrived last week on board a helicopter chartered by her employer.

She was found positive for COVID-19 after a rapid test conducted at the Iloilo International Airport and the results were confirmed by another test.

She has been on quarantine in her house in La Paz District. —WITH A REPORT FROM NESTOR BURGOS JR.