MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said it was on track to meet President Rodrigo Duterte’s Sunday deadline to send home around 24,000 migrant workers who were unduly kept under quarantine in the National Capital Region.
As of Saturday morning, Dole said it had already sent home a total of 22,426 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Of these, 3,384 were reunited with their families on Friday.
Labor Undersecretary Claro Arellano said they would do their best to transport the remaining OFWs in the quarantines before the deadline.
He assured that all the OFWs who have returned to their provinces had tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19.
To date, Arellano said they had already spent over P700 million to facilitate the return of the OFWs.
He added that various Philippine Overseas Labor Offices had assisted in the repatriation of more than 36,000 workers.
On Friday, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III committed that the next batches of OFWs who would be repatriated would not suffer the same fate as those who were kept in quarantine for nearly two months.