MANILA, Philippines— The Department of Labor and Employment assured the overseas Filipino workers affected by the temporary travel ban to China, Hong Kong, Macau and other declared areas that they would receive financial assistance from the government.
According to acting Labor Secretary Renato Ebarle, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration was already ordered to provide P10,000 cash assistance, accommodation and transportation to each stranded OFW due to the travel ban.
Related Stories
The instruction came days after President Rodrigo Duterte expanded the Philippines' travel ban to include mainland China and its special administrative regions amid the novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease threat.
The ban was declared on Sunday, the same day that the first death in the Philippines from the 2019-
nCoV ARD was announced.
It came more than a week after Wuhan City, the epicenter of the epidemic in China, implemented a lockdown.
Ebarle said the financial, transportation and accommodation aid would help ease the burden on would-be departing workers, and assist them in their transport back to their places of origin.
DOLE said stranded OFWs would be accommodated at the OWWA halfway house while arrangements for their travel to the provinces are being made.
On Monday, hundreds of OFWs bound mostly for Hong Kong and Macau were tranded at Philippine airports following the novel coronavirus travel ban. — Rosette Adel