Lorenzana denies OFWs in Middle East were begging to survive
Published Jun 17, 2020 12:00 am
By Martin Sadongdong
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana dismissed on Wednesday the rumors that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East have resorted to begging for food while waiting to be repatriated because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana
(EPA/ROLEX DELA PENA / MANILA BULLETIN) Lorenzana, who is also the chairman of the National Action Plan (NAP) on COVID-19, was reacting to a television reporter's question about the predicament of OFWs who were forced to find food in trash cans and beg in villas of wealthy Arab men and well-off Filipinos in the Middle East. A video showing the hardships of the OFWs was allegedly uploaded on Facebook. "Hindi naman namamalimos. Naghihirap lang sila dahil nawalan sila ng trabaho. (They are not begging. They are just having a hard time because they lost their jobs)," Lorenzana said in the sidelines of the walk-through of a modular testing laboratory at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City. The defense chief assured the OFWs that the government has been coordinating with the embassies and labor attaches to bring them home the soonest time possible. "'Yung ating labor attaches at embassy doon are taking care of our OFWs. Itong darating na linggo, dadamihan natin ang incoming flights para i-accommodate natin sila umuwi (Our labor attaches and embassy there are taking care of our OFWs. This coming week, we will increase the incoming flights to accommodate them)," Lorenzana added. There are around 40,000 OFWs who are expected to be repatriated in the coming weeks, according to Lorenzana. These include workers in the Middle East, Caribbean, Florida in United States, and Canada among others. "They will be brought home as soon as possible," Lorenzana said. The government has limited the arrival of OFWs so as not to overwhelm the testing capability and isolation facilities in airports. Vince Dizon, National Task Force (NTF) deputy chief implementer, said the country now has 60 testing laboratories while the maximum testing capacity stands at 50,000. However, the actual tests per day was placed to around 12,000 due to the limited supply of testing kits. New laboratory The newly established molecular laboratory in VMMC, which was donated by Unilab to the government, can accommodate 300 to 400 tests per day. It is set to start operations on Monday. Dizon said the government is now aiming to reach the 100th laboratory mark to further increase its testing capacity. "We are already prioritizing areas with limited testing capacity. These are the far-flung and island provinces," he said. For his part, NTF chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr., thanked the private sector for the newly-established laboratory which he said will be a"big help" to the government's fight against COVID-19. "Malaki po ang magiging gamit nito especially nasa Quezon City tayo. Alam niyo po, nagkakaroon na po tayo ng expanded testing and maraming makikinabang rito lalo na ang mga seniors at uniformed soldiers at taga QC (It will be very useful especially since it was established in Quezon City. We are now conducting expanded testing and a lot of people will benefit from this especially the seniors, uniformed men, and Quezon City residents)," Galvez said.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana(EPA/ROLEX DELA PENA / MANILA BULLETIN) Lorenzana, who is also the chairman of the National Action Plan (NAP) on COVID-19, was reacting to a television reporter's question about the predicament of OFWs who were forced to find food in trash cans and beg in villas of wealthy Arab men and well-off Filipinos in the Middle East. A video showing the hardships of the OFWs was allegedly uploaded on Facebook. "Hindi naman namamalimos. Naghihirap lang sila dahil nawalan sila ng trabaho. (They are not begging. They are just having a hard time because they lost their jobs)," Lorenzana said in the sidelines of the walk-through of a modular testing laboratory at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City. The defense chief assured the OFWs that the government has been coordinating with the embassies and labor attaches to bring them home the soonest time possible. "'Yung ating labor attaches at embassy doon are taking care of our OFWs. Itong darating na linggo, dadamihan natin ang incoming flights para i-accommodate natin sila umuwi (Our labor attaches and embassy there are taking care of our OFWs. This coming week, we will increase the incoming flights to accommodate them)," Lorenzana added. There are around 40,000 OFWs who are expected to be repatriated in the coming weeks, according to Lorenzana. These include workers in the Middle East, Caribbean, Florida in United States, and Canada among others. "They will be brought home as soon as possible," Lorenzana said. The government has limited the arrival of OFWs so as not to overwhelm the testing capability and isolation facilities in airports. Vince Dizon, National Task Force (NTF) deputy chief implementer, said the country now has 60 testing laboratories while the maximum testing capacity stands at 50,000. However, the actual tests per day was placed to around 12,000 due to the limited supply of testing kits. New laboratory The newly established molecular laboratory in VMMC, which was donated by Unilab to the government, can accommodate 300 to 400 tests per day. It is set to start operations on Monday. Dizon said the government is now aiming to reach the 100th laboratory mark to further increase its testing capacity. "We are already prioritizing areas with limited testing capacity. These are the far-flung and island provinces," he said. For his part, NTF chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr., thanked the private sector for the newly-established laboratory which he said will be a"big help" to the government's fight against COVID-19. "Malaki po ang magiging gamit nito especially nasa Quezon City tayo. Alam niyo po, nagkakaroon na po tayo ng expanded testing and maraming makikinabang rito lalo na ang mga seniors at uniformed soldiers at taga QC (It will be very useful especially since it was established in Quezon City. We are now conducting expanded testing and a lot of people will benefit from this especially the seniors, uniformed men, and Quezon City residents)," Galvez said.