Says LGU officials who’ll insist on barring OFWs could face criminal charges
(Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte ordered local government officials to accept overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) returning home to their provinces, and even warned those who will insist on barring the OFWs’ return that they “run the risk of getting sued criminally” if they do so.
Duterte warned local government executives that they cannot bar OFWs from returning to their homes as this was a constitutional right of the OFWs, and the power to bar people at this time of national emergency is only reserved for the national government.
“Nobody but nobody, only the national government can impose restriction on travel because it is the only agency that can declare that it is an issue of national interest,” he said in a virtual presser done shortly after midnight Tuesday, May 26.
Upon learning that there are some cities and provinces that do not want to accept the returning OFWs who had been under quarantine for almost a month in Metro Manila, the 75-year old Philippine leader was unequivocal. He said the LGUs should accept them.
“You know, I’m ordering you to accept them,” Duterte said. “Allow the people to travel wherever they want.”
“Pero alam mo, hindi naman lahat talaga nagkasakit, and it is very cruel, actually, to deny them to go,” he continued in a televised address to the Filipino nation shortly after presiding over a meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
-OFWs to be returned to their homes had all tested negative for COVID, says Año-
During the meeting, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año assured the President that the 24,000 OFWs who were to be returned to their homes, had all tested negative for COVID-19.
The President said that this is all the more reason for them to be accepted in the towns, cities and provinces which they call their home.
“You are not allowed to unilaterally na ganito … that you are closing the ingress and egress ng tao. Mahirap yan. Magkagulo tayo,” Duterte said, warning LGUs
The President even made a threat that LGUs which would bar the OFWs from returning home can face criminal charges.
“It is the constitutional right of people to go home, to travel and go home. Do not impede it, do not obstruct, the movement of people, because you run the risk of getting sued criminally,” he said.
Duterte early Monday, May 25, had given instructions for the OFWs who had been stuck in hotels and quarantine areas in Metro Manila to be returned to their home provinces and cities within the week. He had ordered the fast-tracking of the release of their swab test results, so that they can be transported back to their homes.
The President had also ordered authorities to use even government’s air, land and naval assets if the various commercial means of transportation — buses, ships and planes — are not enough for the OFWs to be brought home.
The government had said that more than 40,000 OFWs are expected to be repatriated to the country shortly, and as many as 300,000 OFWs are also expected to return when international air travel resumes.
(Eagle News Service)
