RETURNING OFWs. Bacolod City Councilor Israel Salanga (right), chair of the Action Team on Returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), gives instructions to the 16 returning OFWs who arrived at Bredco port on Thursday night (May 21, 2020). They comprise the fourth batch of the “Malasakit Voyage” passengers who have returned to Bacolod since April 28. (Photo courtesy of Bacolod City PIO)
BACOLOD CITY – Two groups of Bacolodnons stranded in Metro Manila and Palawan arrived in separate vessels at the Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. (Bredco) port here on Thursday.
The teams of the city government for both returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and non-OFWs facilitated the transport of the arriving residents to the various quarantine facilities.
At 6:30 p.m., 16 OFW residents of Bacolod were among the arrivals aboard the 2GO Group’s St. Therese of Child Jesus.
They comprise the fourth batch of the “Malasakit Voyage” passengers who have returned to Bacolod since April 28.
Councilor Israel Salanga, chair of the Action Team on Returning OFWs, welcomed the group and facilitated their transportation to a hotel, where they will undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine.
"They get a free swab test once they arrive in Bacolod,” Salanga said.
This will be done during the quarantine and they will be sent home after two weeks if their reverse transcription - polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test turns negative for Covid-19.
The city government is committed to strictly observe the health protocols on handling returning OFWs, he said.
In the afternoon, 38 Bacolodnons, who traveled from Palawan via Dumangas, Iloilo arrived aboard the Montenegro Lines’ M/V Mari Lolita and were brought to the patient care facility at the Education and Training Center (ETCS)-I extension campus to undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine.
They make up the fourth batch of non-OFW residents of Bacolod who came home this month.
The third batch came from Cebu on May 13 and is also quarantined at the ETCS-I extension campus.
The first batch was from Iloilo while the second batch came from Manila.
The city government also has a quarantine facility at the Mariano G. Medalla Integrated School, where eight students of the University of the Philippines - Visayas (UPV) spent their 14-day quarantine before they were sent home on Monday afternoon. (PNA)
