Around 4,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who returned to the Philippines amid the pandemic are stranded in Metro Manila after the Philippine Red Cross stopped PhilHealth COVID-19 testing.
Maki Pulido reported on “State of the Nation with Jessica Soho” that it would now take longer for OFWs to get their COVID-19 clearance, which is required before their respective provinces would accept them.
“We are now faced with another stranding of our OFWs. Right now, we are talking of at least 4,000 plus now stranded in Metro Manila,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said.
The government could only send around 300 OFWs now from 3,000 in the past weeks.
More than 100,000 OFWs are still expected to arrive in the country before 2020 ends.
“You can imagine how many OFWs are now stranded in all the hotels in Metro Manila. ‘Yun ang problema namin,” Bello said.
“They are staying longer, when before they could stay only as long as three to four days. Now, they’re staying already beyond one week, and that’s our problem in terms of expenses and in terms of taking care of our OFWs,” he added.
On October 15, Red Cross stopped processing COVID-19 tests of those listed in the Department of Health’s expanded testing guidelines (DOH) per its memorandum no. 2020-0258-A, including overseas Filipino workers, individuals through the mega swabbing facilities and local government units, frontline health and government workers, and those arriving in airports and seaports.
OFWs stranded in Metro Manila after PRC limits COVID-19 testing
According to Philippine Red Cross, PhilHealth needs to pay its overdue balance of P930,993,000 before they resume their service.
“Unfortunately, PhilHealth failed to meet its obligations. As a result, the PRC’s total billings to PhilHealth stand at P1,014,975,500.00 as of October 13, 2020. Of this amount, P930,993,000.00 represents overdue amounts,” it said.
PRC revealed PhilHealth’s last payment to PRC was made on September 8, but “not a single centavo has been paid since then.”
Meanwhile, Malacañang said Tuesday that the government would pay at least half of the PhilHealth’s P930.9-million debt to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) “at the soonest possible time.”
“It’s a matter really of accounting and payment. Di ko lang po masigurado pero parang tumatawad din ata tayo ng kaunti doon sa sinisingil ng PRC na wala naman daw pong problema,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said at a news conference.