RETURNING RESIDENTS. A total of 16 returning overseas Filipinos arrived early Thursday evening (June 4, 2020) at the Dumaguete-Sibulan airport in Negros Oriental. These past days have seen the influx of returning residents to the province, including OFWs and locally-stranded individuals after the easing of border control measures. (Photo courtesy of Bebsy Colaljo Lamis/Provincial Tourism Unit)
DUMAGUETE CITY – Hundreds of returning residents have arrived in Negros Oriental over the past days, to include overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and locally-stranded individuals (LSIs) coming in via air or sea travel.
More arrived here on Friday, including over 40 OFWs from Manila, who are among the repatriated OFWs that are being transported to the Visayas and Mindanao.
An initial report received by the Philippine Coast Guard-Dumaguete Station here said the St. Michael The Archangel vessel that sailed from Manila docked at the city port here around noon Friday (June 5).
A total of 187 OFWs were scheduled to take a vessel of 2GO shipping to this province and other areas, broken down as follows: Cebu, 18; Dumaguete (Negros Oriental), 47; Ozamis, 44; Iligan, nine; and Zamboanga, 69.
As of this writing, the disembarkation of the OFWs continues at the city port here, where proper health and safety protocols are being followed. It was not immediately known whether LSIs were also aboard this vessel.
Some local government unit (LGU) representatives are on hand to receive their respective residents, as well as personnel from the Philippine Ports Authority, Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine National Police, Maritime Police, and the Provincial Health Office, among other agencies.
Meanwhile, 16 returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) arrived Thursday evening here on board a Philippine Air Force aircraft, which landed at the Dumaguete-Sibulan airport.
The returning Filipinos include 13 from Negros Oriental and three from nearby Siquijor province.
A composite team from the Provincial Health Office, the Provincial Tourism Unit, and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) here facilitated the arrival and documentation of the ROFs.
They were brought to a hotel to be fetched by their LGUs who will ensure they are subjected to local health protocols, such as quarantine for a certain number of days.
On the other hand, hundreds of LSIs have also arrived in the province early this week, via barge trips from nearby Cebu or on a “slow boat” that docked at the city port here.
However, the number of arrivals has yet to be tallied by the Provincial Tourism Unit, pending the reports from the different LGUs based on the recent sea travels from Cebu, Dipolog, and Dapitan, based on Coast Guard records.
Adrian Sedillo, executive director of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) in a press briefing Friday afternoon reiterated that under new guidelines and directive from national authorities, the LGUs will now be in charge of their LSIs.
The OFWs, meanwhile, will be the responsibility of the Overseas Welfare Workers Administration (OWWA) who will coordinate with authorities here to assist them, such as in ferrying them to hotels for their quarantine and compliance with other protocols.
The influx of returning residents here has seen a spike over the past weeks after the province transitioned from enhanced community quarantine to general community quarantine due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) threat.
The national government had allowed stranded individuals and OFWs to return to their home provinces/cities/towns under the "Hatid Probinsya" program provided they comply with the requirements. (PNA)
