Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 25) — The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration is sending an early warning to the government about the possible depletion of its fund to cover expenses for returning overseas Filipino workers.
Speaking to CNN Philippines’ Newsroom Ngayon, OWWA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said the agency only has less than ₱3 billion left to cover costs of having to quarantine returning OFWs.
“We have around less than ₱3 billion left but that will be depleted by May or June… We are just preempting the very strong likelihood of depletion,” he said.
Currently, Cacdac noted that around 6,000 OFWs are staying in 135 hotel quarantine facilities. He said the cost of their stay in these facilities increased by as much as four times due to longer quarantine periods of 7-9 days due to the threat of the coronavirus variants.
Current protocols require OFWs to undergo swab testing on the 6th day from arrival in their quarantine facilities.
Cacdac earlier said that the agency needs additional ₱9.8 billion to shoulder food, transportation, and accommodation expenses for repatriated OFWs. He said its initial ₱6.2 billion 2021 budget is about to be exhausted given that total accommodation cost per day is at around ₱30 million.
Meanwhile, he said around 490,000 were also transported back to their home provinces, and some 450,000 displaced OFWs were given government assistance though the Labor Department’s Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong for OFWs program.
Cacdac also said he is seeing around 480,000 more OFWs to return home, but not all are displaced workers since many host countries are already returning to normalcy.
