More overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and locally stranded individuals (LSIs) returned home to Negros Occidental and Bacolod City from Metro Manila on Wednesday.

They were part of the second week of arrivals following President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive on May 25 to immediately send all OFWs stuck in quarantine centers in Metro Manila to their respective homes.

An AirAsia sweeper flight landed at the Bacolod-Silay Airport at about 7:35 a.m., carrying 38 passengers – 26 Negrenses and 11 Bacolodnons, with one LSI.

At the Bredco port here, 16 OFWs from Negros Occidental and five from Bacolod, along with two LSIs, arrived aboard a 2GO Group vessel at about 8:30 a.m.

Based on local health protocols, returning residents – whether OFWs or LSIs – are required to proceed to the patient care centers to undergo a two-week mandatory quarantine and subject themselves to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

In Negros Occidental, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said returning OFWs no longer have to complete the 14-day quarantine period once they yield a negative result before completing the required number of days.

From May 25 to June 1 alone, the province received 601 returning residents while this city has accommodated some 348 persons, who arrived either on sweeper flights or aboard 2GO Group’s Malasakit Voyage trips.

This June, the first flight arrived at the Bacolod-Silay Airport on Monday morning. It was an AirAsia sweeper flight that carried 12 residents of Bacolod City and 19 from various cities and municipalities in Negros Occidental.

The returning OFWs, who are residents of Bacolod City and Negros Occidental, are provided accommodations in hotels, tourist inns, and pension houses in the city, upon the respective agreements of the city and the province with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration. (PNA)

Photo Source: Negros Occidental PDRRMO