Seventy-eight overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have finally arrived in Antique after availing of President Rodrigo Duterte’s OFW Return Program.
The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRMMO) on Monday picked up 41 OFWs from the Iloilo International Airport in Cabatuan, Iloilo, and 37 more at the Fort San Pedro terminal in Iloilo City.
“The 41 OFWs were onboard the three flights of the Philippine Airlines (PAL) last May 25,” PDRRMO officer Broderick Train said in an interview Tuesday.
Upon their arrival in Antique, they immediately underwent the rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
The swab for the RT-PCR test will be submitted to the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) sub-national Laboratory in Mandurriao, Iloilo City.
The result is expected within the next three to five days.
The Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) will also release the result of the RDT together with the RT-PCR result.
“After the testing, the OFWs were transported to their respective municipal isolation facilities,” Train said.
They will have to undergo the 14-day quarantine in their municipal isolation facilities to make sure that they are free of Covid-19 before they could finally reunite with their families, he added.
Meanwhile, Prisceli Joyce Lizcel Galuego, in-charge of the OFW Desk, said in a separate interview that the repatriates were from the towns of Sibalom with 11; Hamtic with 10; Anini-y, nine; Pandan and San Jose with seven each; Culasi, six; Bugasong, five; Laua-an and Tibiao with four each; three each in Sebaste and Patnongon; two each from Barbaza, Belison, Libertad, and Tobias Fornier; and one from San Remigio.
“We have not yet discussed what assistance would be provided to OFWs since we still do not know what would be their plans if they would still go back to their work abroad later on or they would already opt to work within the province,” she said.
She said that what is important is that they are already in their home province. (PNA)
Photo Source: Antique PDRRMO