The government is planning to transport back to their provinces the remaining more or less 2,000 locally stranded individuals (LSIs) at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex by Thursday.
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said the LSIs who are still at the sports complex are those who were not accommodated in the second leg of the "Hatid Tulong" on July 25 to 26.
Año said there were originally only 3,600 persons who registered for the second leg of the program, but several days before the scheduled trips, a lot of people came to the stadium to avail of the "Hatid Tulong" program.
“Umabot ng halos 8,000. Pero kawawa naman ‘yung mga kababayan natin kung ipagtatabuyan mo ‘yan. Kaya talagang ginawan ng paraan para ma-accommodate (Almost 8,000 came, and we just can’t push them away. So we really tried to accommodate everyone),” Año said.
Most of the remaining LSIs are bound for Zamboanga and Davao provinces, according to Año.
The DILG chief said they also cannot transport some of the stranded individuals because other provinces still have moratorium on accepting 2,000 LSIs like Davao de Oro, Davao City, Tawi-Tawi, Cebu province, Siquijor, Negros Oriental, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte, and Abra.
Año said those bound for provinces that still do not accept LSIs are temporarily moved to the housing project of the National Housing Administration in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan where they can stay while waiting.
Currently, Año said, 284 individuals are in San Jose del Monte.
He said the government is planning to put up different waiting venues per region to avoid overcrowding.
“Sa susunod ay iba iba na ang venues ng iba’t ibang region. Kung limang regions, limang sites ang ipe-prepare natin, para di magkumpol kumpol (In the next leg of our program, we will set up different venues per region. If we have five regions, we will prepare five venues to avoid overcrowding.),” Año said.