By Jun Ramirez Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have been ordered to assist other government agencies in identifying Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to be subjected to mass testing and undergo mandatory 14-day quarantine. Bureau of Immigration (MANILA BULLETIN) BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the directive is in line with the recent pronouncement from the Inter-agency task Force (IATF) requiring all arriving OFWs to undergo mass rapid testing at the airport before they are brought to temporary shelters for mandatory quarantine. The BI chief said there are reports that some of the passengers do not admit or declare that they are OFWs to avoid being quarantined. “If they misdeclare their status during the health screening, immigration officers will still be able to detect it,” said Morente. BI port operations division chief Grifton Medina disclosed that a one-stop shop for arriving OFWs is now in place at the NAIA. Medina said BI officers will “conduct redundancy check for arriving Filipinos” to see if OFWs have been inspected by the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) after disembarking from the aircraft. “Passengers who do not have the quarantine registration form showing that he or she has been tested for COVID-19 symptoms by BOQ personnel after disembarking from the aircraft shall be referred back to the BOQ,” he added. He said that after being processed by the BI, the OFWs will be escorted by the appropriate government agency to buses that will bring them to their designated quarantine destinations. Medina disclosed that as of Sunday, some 50 special flights carrying OFWs, mostly seafarers, have already arrived since the enhanced community quarantine took effect. The bulk of the repatriated passengers came from Italy, Spain, and the United States.