A Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) official has asked for the understanding of quarantine hotels that have been waiting on the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration’s (OWWA) payments in connection with the services they rendered to repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

In a virtual press briefing Wednesday, Aug. 4, DOLE-Information and Publication Service (IPS) Director Rolly Francia confirmed reports that some hotels and accommodation facilities have stopped functioning as quarantine hotels over the delayed payments of OWWA.

"Malungkot nga po 'yan, may natanggap din tayong ganyang report. Pero sinisikap po ng OWWA na tugunan lahat ng kanyang obligasyon sa mga quarantine facilities (We've also received that report, and it's sad. But OWWA is working hard to meet its obligations to these quarantine facilities)," Francia told labor beat reporters.

"Siguro po kaunting pang-unawa ang hinihingi natin on behalf of OWWA (On behalf of OWWA, we ask for a little bit of understanding)," he said.

A subordinate agency of DOLE, OWWA--through its annual budget--has been shouldering the quarantine hotel accommodation, food, and transportation of the displaced OFWs eversince the onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020. The agency is led by its administrator, Hans Leo Cacdac.

The past few months have been a roller-coaster ride for OWWA as it has gone through a cycle of depleting its funds, replenishing it, and reportedly depleting it again in the performance of its task.

"The last time I heard admin Hans, almost depleted na rin yung P5 billion fund na nirequest noon (the P5 billion that they requested and gained has almost been depleted)," Francia said, referring to the supplemental budget that OWWA received from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) last May.

Francia said OWWA has since requested an additional P3 to 4 billion to sustain the quarantine and transportation efforts of the returning OFWs.

"Hindi lang naman po kasi ang gastos ng repatriation fund na yan na binigay sa OWWA ay para lang sa quarantine facilities (Not all of the repatriation funds that were given to OWWA were intended to go to the quarantine facilities)," he pointed out.

He further said that the tightening of quarantine restrictions in the near future will also result to longer quarantine hotels stays for the returning OFWs. This equates to more expenses on the part of the government.

"Kaunting tiis lang po, mababayaran din po kayo. May mga inuuna lang marahil ang OWWA, at tsaka siguro dahil sa mga documentary requirements (Just a little patience please, you will get paid eventually. Perhaps OWWA needed to prioritize something else, or maybe the documentary requirements held up the payments)," Francia said.

"Hindi naman po kasi ganun ka-simple na mag-disburse ng pondo sa pamahalaan, napakadami pong requirements kahit po tayo ay nasa national emergency (Eventhough we're in a national emergency, disbursing funds from government isn't so simple and entails a lot of requirements)," he further explained.

He bared in the same press briefing that over 636,000 OFWs have been sent home since the start of the pandemic.