Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) can come home and spend the holidays with their families as they are exempted from a government policy banning travellers from the United Kingdom and 20 other countries with cases of the new Covid 19 strain from entering the Philipines, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Tuesday.
He said the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) against Covid 19 has recommended a total ban on travellers from the 21 affected countries but President Duterte gave special consideration to OFWs who have contributed P1.6 trillion to the national economy.
"That's the decision of the President. He was very firm in deciding that the restriction will only apply to other travelers...He exempted our OFWs. He said:'I want our OFWs to go home to their families,'" Bello said in virtual press briefing.
"If they are not OFWs, they are not covered by the exemption. They are covered by the restriction imposed by the Inter Agency Task Force," he added.
In going home, Bello said, OFWs exempted from the restriction must undergo 14 days of quarantine in government facilities upon their arrival.
"Even if they had swab test and found to be negative from the virus, they are still required to be quarantined for 14 days," he said.
The labor chief added that the quarantine is also applicable to OFWs who already took shots of the new anti-Covid 19 vaccines.
When asked for the reason why OFWs were exempted, Bello said, he does not want to second guess the President.
"We all know that they were only forced to work abroad in order to provide their families and the nation a better future," he said.
"We call them our modern-day heroes because the truth is our OFWs have contributed as of 2019, P1.6 trillion to our national economy. I think its only right that they be given special consideration during this time of the pandemic," Bello added.
According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), some 60,000 to 100,000 OFWs from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Australia, Israel, Netherlands, China, Hongkong, Macao, Switzerland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Lebanon, Singapore, Sweden, South Korea, South Africa, Canada, and Spain which recorded cases of the new Covid 19 strain are expected to come home in the Philippines to celebrate spend the holidays.
The new Covid 19 strain is believed to be more contagious and deadly.