DOLE forms task groups to fast-track movement of OFWs

FILE: Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) heading to their hometowns after completing mandatory quarantine queue at the departure area of Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 during a send-off on Tuesday (May 26, 2020) (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)

MANILA – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has formed two task groups to help expedite the movement of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from various quarantine facilities to their respective destinations in provinces, and facilitate quick processing of outbound workers.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has tapped additional personnel from the DOLE’s regional offices and attached agencies to beef up the manpower requirement of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in ensuring the smooth land and air transport of the Filipino workers.

The task group will also help monitor the transport of OFWs from various quarantine facilities to their respective home destinations.

The move is in compliance with the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to immediately send home all OFWs who tested negative for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) conducted by the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Red Cross.

Some 24,000 OFWs have been in government quarantine facilities since their return to the country.

Bello, in an administrative order, also formed a separate task group to ease the processing of outbound land and sea-based workers whose country of destination has lifted restrictions on the employment of foreign workers.

“We are doing this so as we don’t lose the jobs for our OFWs, while at the same time we help facilitate the quick homecoming and be of assistance to our returning workers,” he said in a statement.

He added that the government did not intend to inconvenience the returning OFWs with their prolonged quarantine and delayed test results.

“DOLE and OWWA simply had no control over the testing and issuance of clearances,” he said.

Aside from facilitating the processing of inbound and outbound OFWs, Bello added the ‘hatid-probinsya’ and ‘balik-abroad’ task groups will serve as monitoring offices for onsite OFWs and those seeking repatriation.

The task groups are housed in a central command center manned by the heads of OWWA, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and DOLE’s International Labor Affairs Bureau.

The center will be supervised by former labor secretary Marianito Roque who will be assisted by three labor undersecretaries.