Leave no one behind
The rapid spread of Covid-19 around the world has seen many countries enforce strict travel restrictions and close borders, which have stranded thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWS).
We commend the government’s decisiveness in bringing our OFWS home. We thank those involved in this nonstop, heroic—but risk-fraught—repatriation effort, in particular Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. and his people in the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), who pulled out all the stops to overcome difficulties posed by lockdowns, travel bans and airport closures.
The DFA ensured the safe and successful repatriation of Filipinos through close coordination and cooperation with its partner agencies—the Department of Health, the Bureau of Immigration, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the Department of Transportation—as well as the private sector.
On Good Friday, 1,420 Filipino seafarers from 15 cruise ships were brought home in four chartered flights, from New Orleans, London, Miami and Frankfurt.
The Businessmirror featured a story of the DFA welcoming 440 Filipino seafarers repatriated from a Norwegian Cruise Lines via a chartered flight from Florida.
“Four other incoming repatriation flights today. We’re not done yet,” said DFA Undersecretary Brigido “Dodo” Dulay.
The DFA said it “pays tribute to the courage and sacrifices of our OFWS all over the world as it brings home Filipino seafarers from Carnival cruise ships [Fantasy, Freedom, Glory, Legend and Valor] on Good Friday.”
Secretary Locsin also said the DFA is chartering flights for 37 Filipino missionaries in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.
On Saturday, 246 seafarers from the United Kingdom arrived from the cruise ship MS Ventura, pushing the number of repatriated seafarers to 8,419, in addition to the 2,975 land-based workers the DFA has brought home. Another 208 seafarers from the MS Norwegian Jade arrived before midnight on Easter Sunday via Emirates Airlines Flight EK 334.
To date, the DFA has facilitated the return of 12,970 distressed OFWS. They will all go through the medical protocols required by the Department of Health. They will also undergo facility-based quarantine following the joint assessment of the Doh-bureau of Quarantine and the Bureau of International Health Cooperation.
On top of its repatriation missions, the DFA has been caring for thousands of anxious Filipinos in pandemic-affected countries.
While consular protection and repatriation are the primary responsibility of the DFA, Secretary Locsin and his people have gone above and beyond the call of duty to come up with creative solutions to hurdle the increasing challenges due to the escalating number of travel restrictions being enforced across the globe as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
For instance, many ship operators are finding it difficult to send returning seafarers to their respective homes due to the scarcity of flights and the closing of borders.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced an extension of its “no sail order” for all cruise ships by at least 100 days.
In response, Locsin backed the suggestion of Doris Magsaysay Ho (president and CEO of the Magsaysay Group, one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines, which trains and deploys thousands of Filipinos for ships around the world) that cruise ships “should keep crews on board and sail to the ports of the crews’ closest destinations, there to disembark them and sail on to the next port.”
Ho’s suggestion had been carried out earlier when the P&O Australia and Carnival Lines announced that their cruise ships are leaving the Australian coastal waters by the middle of April to set sail to Manila “and bring back an estimated 2,500 Filipino seafarers.”
“The ship will wait for sister ships Sun Princess and Sea Princess to arrive at the rendezvous point and set sail together to join Explorer Pacific Aria and Pacific Dawn, which will also sail to Asia,” said travel consultant Manny Geslani. “P&O Australia is working with the governments of Indonesia and the Philippines and has sought approval for the return of their respective crew members to their home countries.”
The Carnival Spirit will load all the Filipino crew who will transfer from the Carnival Splendor using tender boats, and then sail to Manila, Cebu and Davao where the crew will sign off.
This “no one left behind” repatriation effort shows there are people in government who still truly care about our OFWS as people, not just as cash cows sending billions of dollars in remittances to help shore up the Philippine economy.
At a time when many citizens in foreign lands cannot go home without their government’s help, the DFA made it clear to Filipinos: We do not abandon our people. We will do everything to get you all home safely.