Panic turns to protest: OFWS endure prolonged quarantine
Ann said she wished Mr. Duterte’s order had come earlier. ‘You can’t compensate for the OFWS’ mental stress,’ she said, adding that one in their group experienced frequent panic attacks and had to be taken from the hotel to the headquarters of the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration
For their first monthlong vacation together, this couple, both overseas Filipino workers (OFWS) in Hong Kong, found themselves in quarantine at a hotel in Pasig City.
Ann Allones, 42, and Bong Hufano, 44, have been working as maid and driver for a family in Hong Kong since 2000. Every year during summer, they travel to their province of Iloilo and spend three weeks with their two sons, now 16 and 12 years old.
“This is our first time to be isolated for one straight month in the 20 years we have been together,” Ann said. “It’s as if we had our honeymoon. But it’s somehow painful because we were supposed to be with our sons and relatives during this time.”
The couple were among 109 OFWS repatriated from Taiwan, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong, and staying at Daisy Hotel for more than a month. Upon arrival at the Manila airport on April 18, they were told to undergo 14day quarantine and then a swab test for the novel coronavirus on May 8. The results would be released in three to five days, they were told.
But delays in the issuance of the test results prolonged their stay.
On May 26, President Duterte ordered local officials to “open the gates of [their] territories” to returning OFWS. He was apparently reacting to reports that OFWS were being blocked from returning even after they had tested negative for COVID-19 and completed 14-day quarantine.
Mental stress
Ann said she wished Mr. Duterte’s order had come earlier. “You can’t compensate for the OFWS’ mental stress,” she said, adding that one in their group experienced frequent panic attacks and had to be taken from the hotel to the headquarters of the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (Owwa).
Other OFWS unable to cope with being away from their families were plagued with anxiety and depression. Last month, one among the distressed OFWS repatriated from Kuwait killed herself after being held in a hotel in Pasay City for a month.
Others interviewed by the Inquirer in April are still in that hotel at this writing, like Rovelyn Pajal, who is awaiting help from Camiguin officials. Some OFWS who were not part of the Kuwait amnesty program and were paying for their food and lodging in Metro Manila have asked the government to help them return to their provinces.
But despite the unfavorable conditions, Ann said, the fact that she and Bong were together made their situation bearable.
“They told us they envied us because at least we were together. Had I been alone here, I would have gone crazy,” Ann said. Or, she added jokingly, she would have killed someone.
Ann and Bong were allowed to share a room, but after another round of testing a week ago, each OFW was told to stay one to a room. “But we did not follow that because we finished the 14-day quarantine already,” Ann said.
Midnight tea
The couple’s typical night included talking about their future and their children, and chatting with family on Facebook, Ann said. Bong said they also reviewed their plans to figure out what went wrong while sipping midnight tea.
Ann said they had given away to the hotel staff the chocolates intended for their sons rather than have these melt in their luggage. They had not thought of bringing a lot of gifts—“pasalubong”—because they had not intended to stay long.
“We have so many plans,” Ann said. “Our sons are waiting for us! We also have to get back to our work. Our return [to Hong Kong] is long overdue. But I hope [our bosses] allow us to stay in Iloilo for at least two weeks more, for our children.”
At Daisy Hotel, the Owwa is footing the bill for food and lodging.
“There’s nothing to complain about the food. The staff is very friendly. We are given bottled water every day,” Ann said. She said she spent the mornings jogging and exercising, and the afternoons writing to and phoning their local government unit. The office of Iloilo City Rep. Jamjam Baronda, she said, was the most responsive.
Breadwinner
Ann was 18 when she first flew to Hong Kong in 1998 to work as a maid. She has not left her employer since. Bong, then 22, went to Hong Kong two years later to work as a family driver. They became a couple in a few years and Ann gave birth to their first son in 2004.
“This is for the future of my family and my children...,”
Ann said. “To work as a maid is the only thing I know. I’m not ashamed of it ... Somehow I was able to send my seven siblings to school and provide for my family in the province as a breadwinner. Now I’m working for my sons’ education. I want to give them a good education and foundation.”
The seven siblings she put through school all finished college, but she didn’t. Six of them are now working as OFWS in Dubai, Canada and Qatar.
“[But] we have the best employer in Hong Kong. Super. We are lucky,” Ann said. “They call us every day, asking when we are coming back. I tell them, ‘But we have not reached Iloilo yet,’” she told the Inquirer, laughing.
Ann said she and Bong had missed two important milestones: Mother’s Day on May 3 and their younger son’s graduation on May 7 (since postponed to July).
Quarantine is correct for everyone’s safety, but beyond 14 days is “more than enough already,” Ann said.
Tuesday protest
The couple, along with other OFWS, held a protest action at Daisy Hotel on Tuesday, calling on the government to send them home. Ann said certain Coast Guard personnel told them not to upload the video of the protest or they would be in violation of rules.
“Every day, we would ask them if we could go home, but we were not given actual answers,” Bong said, referring to two Owwa representatives. They were supposedly told they could go home without a test. Later they were told they could go home without a test if they had been quarantined. Still later they were told a test was required.
“What the Owwa is doing is very dangerous. I’m afraid [something worse] will happen in the Philippines because they keep changing protocols every week,” Ann said, adding: “We understand the Owwa because they have a lot of work. But they do not have a concrete plan. We were subjected to trial and error.”
Ann noted that the protocol now was to test arriving OFWS, and then after six days, they could get a test result and a quarantine clearance issued by the Bureau of Quarantine.
On Thursday, Ann arrived in Iloilo alone after receiving the results of her swab test last week. At this writing, she is staying at a school for another quarantine period.
Bong received his test result only on Thursday from the Philippine Red Cross. At this writing, he is still at the Manila airport.
“The wait is too much,” he said.