{"id":250753,"date":"2020-04-01T06:48:46","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T10:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=250753"},"modified":"2020-04-01T06:48:46","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T10:48:46","slug":"stranded-ofws-grateful-to-govt-for-comfortable-stay-in-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/01\/stranded-ofws-grateful-to-govt-for-comfortable-stay-in-clark\/","title":{"rendered":"Stranded OFWs grateful to gov\u2019t for \u2018comfortable\u2019 stay in Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Clark International Terminal (Photo by Joseph Marc Salas\/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were stranded at the Clark International Airport the past weeks, have thanked the government now that they are comfortably staying for free in Clark, Pampanga.<\/p>\n

\u201cNoong sinabi nila na dalhin kami dito, hindi ko rin alam ang lugar na ito, pero nang makita ko, wala akong masabi\u2026Kumportable kasi<\/em>\u00a0safe\u00a0kami dito. Pinapasalamatan ko na sa panahon na ganito, sinalo kami ng gobyerno<\/em>\u00a0(When they said we will be brought here, we don\u2019t know this place but when we saw it, I was speechless. We are comfortable here. I\u2019m grateful that in times like this, the government rescued us),\u201d seaman Jimmy Catubig said.<\/p>\n

Coming from Egypt, Catubig booked a connecting flight to Clark so he can eventually go to Davao and travel home to his family in General Santos City.<\/p>\n

He was among the OFWs and other passengers stranded in Clark due to the travel ban in various provinces in the country amid the Covid-19 threat.<\/p>\n

Another seafarer, Joseph Presillas, who came from Qatar and hoped to come home to Coron, Palawan, shared the same sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell-provided\u00a0naman po lahat at wala na kaming hinihiling pa kasi napakaganda ng<\/em>\u00a0accommodation\u00a0namin dito.<\/em>\u00a0Free\u00a0po lahat<\/em>\u00a0(Everything is well-provided and we cannot ask for more because our accommodation is very nice. Everything is free),\u201d Presillas said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Leonora Antolin, a household worker in Saudi Arabia, was first stranded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) before she was able to stay in Clark.<\/p>\n

She was supposedly going back to her hometown in Surigao del Sur to attend the graduation of her daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven [at] the airport, they provide food,\u201d said Antolin, recalling the time when she was stranded at the Clark airport but still decided to stay there for a chance to travel home, before eventually deciding to join other OFWs at The Mansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cMas gusto ko pa nga dito kasi\u2026ano pang hanapin natin, \u2018pag umaga pwede tayong maglakad. \u2018Yung<\/em>\u00a0breakfast, lunch, dinner,\u00a0nandiyan\u2026Maganda ang<\/em>\u00a0facility\u00a0dito<\/em>\u00a0(I prefer it here because\u2026you can\u2019t ask for more, every morning we can stroll. The breakfast, lunch, dinner is ready. The facility here is good),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Aside from the OFWs, there are also other stranded passengers staying in Clark including Davao-based radio station manager, Magnolia Fernandez-Yrasuegui, who arrived from the US with her husband when they were stranded due to travel restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cNung nag<\/em>-state of emergency\u00a0na si<\/em>\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0at sabi niya baka magsara na ng<\/em>\u00a0borders,\u00a0dali-dali kaming umuwi<\/em>\u00a0because\u00a0ayaw naming maipit kami<\/em>\u00a0(When President Trump declared state of emergency and he said borders might be closed, we immediately returned home because we don\u2019t want to be stranded),\u201d Yrasuegui previously shared over a radio interview. \u201cWe are in a safe place,\u00a0may pagkain na rin kami<\/em>\u00a0(we have also food). Everything is okay\u00a0na ngayon<\/em>\u00a0(now).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn’t have found a much better place to be stranded. We thank God it is here in Clark. The amenities are great. The room is comfortable and staying here makes our situation lighter to bear. Being away from family is difficult but we praise God for the people of BCDA who are always looking out for our welfare,\u201d Yrasuegui said in a separate interview.<\/p>\n

Apart from the free food and lodging, health monitoring of the stranded passengers is also undertaken by the Clark Development Corporation through individual checking of temperatures and orientation on the practice of social distancing and proper personal hygiene.<\/p>\n

The effort is a collaboration of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC), and the Luzon International Premier Airport Development Corporation (LIPAD), to help passengers affected by the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine and the travel restrictions imposed in other parts of the country.\u00a0(PR)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were stranded at the Clark International Airport the past weeks, have thanked the government …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":250754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250755,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250753\/revisions\/250755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}