A total of 612,000 Filipinos have been repatriated since May 2020, the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) said on Monday.
OWWA was expecting 70,000 to 80,000 more Filipinos to return to the country due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, said OWWA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac.
“Pero hindi pa natin naibibilang dyan ‘yung mga regular na kailangang umuwi whether or not may Covid, gawa nung bakasyon. So kung ganiyan ang sitwasyon, aakyat ng mga 100,000 to 130,000, kasama na diyan yung mga kailangang magbakasyon o ‘di kaya may emergency situation dito sa Pilipinas,” Cacdac said in a Laging Handa government briefing.
(But we did not include the ones who regularly need to go home whether or not there is Covid, due to their vacation. So if that is the situation, the number will increase to around 100,000 to 130,000, including the ones who will have their vacation or those who have emergency situations here in the Philippines.)
Cacdac announced that a P5.2-billion fund for the repatriation of Filipinos to be used until September had been approved by President Rodrigo Duterte.
A special seven-day quarantine protocol will be followed by fully vaccinated repatriated Filipinos from countries “green-listed” by the Department of Health, said Cacdac.
The 10-day quarantine protocol will be followed by those who are still not vaccinated. Ariel Jack Tejado II