OFW holiday exodus to Manila begins

MANILA, Philippines - Thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are starting to arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to spend the Christmas holidays here with their families.

Yesterday, the airport’s arrival area was filled after six planes with mostly OFW passengers from the Middle East countries arrived, in addition to the various flights from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

But the immigration bureau provided an additional 30 personnel to help facilitate the processing of documents of around 3,000 passengers.

Damila Jamali, an OFW who hails from Zamboanga, flew in from Dubai with her two children for the holidays.

“We will spend our month-long vacation here because it is lonely to have Christmas abroad,” she said.

Jamali had been working overseas for the last two years.

Another OFW, Ben Castro, said he also applied for a one-month vacation, his first since he left the country in 2009.

“I took advantage of the opportunity to have a vacation. I miss my family so much,” said Castro, who works in a construction company.

Julius Cortes, Immigration supervisor-on-duty, said they expect huge visitor arrivals until Christmas.

Cortes said that based on their record, last year more than 200,000 passengers arrived from Dec. 1 to 7, composed mostly of OFWs, balikbayans and tourists.

The number of arrivals from January to December 2010 reached more than six million passengers, according to Cortes. NAIA Terminal 1 manager Dante Basanta said the Manila International Airport Authority is prepared to deal with the problem, as more NAIA employees have been assigned during peak arrival hours to assist those who need help.