MANILA — Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano confirmed Friday that Malacañang has approved the proposal of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to bring home some 1,000 Filipinos stranded in Hong Kong in time for the holidays.
In a statement, Cayetano said President Rodrigo Duterte approved the plan that he and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III put together on Wednesday to assist the Filipinos.
About 1,000 nationals have found themselves stranded in Hong Kong after the tickets they purchased from Filipino-owned Peya Travel Agency were not honored at the airport.
Cayetano, co-chair of the Cabinet Cluster on Overseas Workers, said the DFA and the DOLE, through the Office of Migrant Workers Affairs (OMWA) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), would advance the cost of roundtrip travel of the affected workers.
Meanwhile, he said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has placed the Philippine Air Force on standby in case air assets would have to be flown to Hong Kong to ferry the workers home.
At the same time, Cayetano said he has instructed the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong to file criminal charges against PEYA Travel.
“We also will pursue a civil suit against PEYA Travel to compensate our kababayans for the damages they suffered,” he said.
DFA Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola said that under the arrangements with OWWA Administrator Hans Cacdac, the two agencies would split the cost of the roundtrip air travel of the affected workers.
Affected workers will be asked to issue an undertaking assigning the refund of their tickets bought from Peya Travel to the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong.
On Tuesday, Cathay Pacific extended help to Filipinos affected by the travel fiasco. According to Arriola, the Philippine Airlines has also offered a discounted airfare and committed to dispatch bigger aircraft to accommodate the stranded workers.
Cebu Pacific, on the other hand, offered 50 complimentary return tickets for the affected Filipinos, mostly household service workers.
For his part, Acting Consul General Roderico Atienza said approximately 160 victims have already approached the Consulate to seek assistance but he expects the number of victims seeking assistance to increase.
“Our kababayans in Hong Kong and other parts of the world have a very special place in President Rodrigo Duterte’s heart and it is just right that we make their Christmas wishes come true by doing what we can to bring them home,” Cayetano said.