Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 29) – Close to 600 Filipino seafarers from overseas are back in their home provinces after completing the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
The shipping and logistics company 2GO Group Inc., on Wednesday said a total of 309 passengers sailed home for Cebu, Dumaguete, Ozamiz, Iligan, and Zamboanga onboard 2GO’s M/V St. Michael the Archangel while 280 passengers returned home to Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, and Bacolod onboard M/V St. Leo the Great.
The seafarers departed for their home provinces on April 26 and 27, in line with the government’s Balik-Probinsya Program.
“It is our privilege to be able to reunite our modern-day heroes with their families and loved ones by bringing them home,” Dan Fernan, 2GO’s head of shipping, said in a statement.
“With regards to the coordination with the LGUs, MARINA (Maritime Industry Authority) is the one coordinating with them directly about the seafarers going home,” he added.
The company is working in close coordination with MARINA, the Philippine Coast Guard, as well as the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) Sub-Task Group on Repatriation of Overseas Filipino Workers chaired by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and co-chaired by the Overseas Workers Welfare Association, to ensure the safety and well-being of the Filipino seafarers.
According to Fernan, at least 250 more are expected to travel back to their home provinces on April 30.
The DOTr earlier said it partnered with 2GO to convert two of its vessels into quarantine facilities for returning overseas workers and seafarers.
The “quarantine ships” can house 1,500 patients. The DOTr noted the move will help ease the burden of hospitals that are now operating at full capacity, due to the disease outbreak.
READ: 2GO vessels to be converted into COVID-19 quarantine ships for returning seafarers, OFWs
Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) continues to bring home overseas Filipinos amid the global crisis.
On Wednesday, the DFA announced that 515 overseas Filipino from Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia arrived in Manila.
The OFWs were subjected to rapid testing for COVID-19 upon arrival, and have been brought to designated facilities where they will undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine, the DFA said.
