{"id":269731,"date":"2020-09-24T04:16:42","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T08:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=269731"},"modified":"2020-09-24T04:16:42","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T08:16:42","slug":"govt-sends-over-200k-ofws-to-their-provinces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/24\/govt-sends-over-200k-ofws-to-their-provinces\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov\u2019t sends over 200K OFWs to their provinces"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_269732\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-269732\" style=\"width: 415px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/lsi-bus-sakay.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-269732\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/lsi-bus-sakay.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"415\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/lsi-bus-sakay.jpg 415w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/lsi-bus-sakay-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 415px) 100vw, 415px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-269732\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Citing report of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the government has assisted 218,205 OFWs since May. (PNA File photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Over 200,000 returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) had been transported back to their home provinces, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Citing report of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the government has assisted 218,205 OFWs since May.<\/p>\n<p>The OFWs were repatriated after losing jobs due to the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>According to OWWA, the latest batch of 1,440 OFWs was transported to their respective provinces after testing negative for Covid-19.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from Covid-19 test, the government provided accommodation, food, and transportation going back to their home provinces upon their arrival in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The DOLE has also been extending a one-time USD200 (PHP10,000) cash aid under the Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) program to OFWs whose incomes were affected by the pandemic, both on-site and those stranded in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Bello said more OFWs will benefit from the AKAP program following President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s signing of Bayanihan to Recover as One or Bayanihan 2 law.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Bello said there are alternative overseas job markets for displaced OFWs particularly in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has resumed accepting and processing work visas; Qatar, which has abolished the \u2018kafala\u2019 system that requires migrant workers to get permission from their employers should they decide to change jobs; and the Kingdom of Bahrain, which has renewed the recruitment of household service workers,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>He added that job markets available for Filipino workers are China, Japan, Czech Republic, and Taiwan<em><strong>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Over 200,000 returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) had been transported back to their home provinces, the Department of Labor &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":269732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269731","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\/269731","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269733,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269731\/revisions\/269733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}