71 more OFWs coming home in boxes

MANILA, Philippines — More overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are coming home in a box from Saudi Arabia after succumbing to COVID-19 among other causes, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said the remains of 71 other OFWs are set to arrive home tomorrow, of whom 57 died of COVID-19.

“The government is now winding up the process of repatriation of the remains and the third batch of OFWs who died in Saudi Arabia is set to arrive this Tuesday,” Bello announced in a statement, noting that 137 remains were flown home in the past weeks. Sixty-four of them died of COVID-19.

Bello said the state ceremony for the repatriated remains of OFWs was well deserved, stressing that “our OFW heroes deserve all the honors they could get.”

The government shouldered all the expenses for repatriation, cremation, transportation and other costs.

DOLE also reported that 106,200 repatriated OFWs have been transported to their home provinces. Just yesterday, 2,246 of them took rides back to their respective provinces after testing negative for SARS-CoV-2. The agency has developed a tracking system – the OFW Assistance Information System (OASIS) – to facilitate an orderly and smooth repatriation and assistance.

Meanwhile, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez is proposing to give aid worth P100,000 to each of the affected families of 301 OFWs who died due to COVID-19 abroad.

“That is not much, but it would be a sincere gesture to our modern-day heroes in general that we appreciate their immense contribution to our country’s growth. Hundreds of them have died since the lockdown while working to help their families and the nation,” he said. – Delon Porcalla, Pia Lee-Brago