Stranded in HK, OFWs may yet book trip home

The Philippine government will advance the payment for the round-trip airfare of about a thousand overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong who were duped by a travel agency into paying for invalid plane tickets.

The affected OFWs found out early this week that the plane tickets they had bought in advance from Peya Travel were not being honored by the airlines.

The fiasco led to at least a thousand OFWs, mostly working as household help in the former British colony, scrambling to get a refund and last-minute flight booking to the Philippines.

On Friday, the Department of Foreign Affairs announced that Malacañang had approved the proposal to have the DFA and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) assist the distressed OFWs.

Foreign Secretary Alan Cayetano said the DFA Office of Migrant Workers Affairs and the DOLE Overseas Workers Welfare Administration would shoulder the cost of round-trip air travel of those affected.

The OFWs, however, will be asked to issue an undertaking assigning the refund of their tickets to the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong.