January 23 ------ The cost of repatriating thousands of overseas Filipinos since the COVID-19 pandemic started in February 2020 is now nearing P1 billion and counting, a report from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) showed. DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola admitted in an exclusive interview that its P1-billion Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) fund under the General Appropriations Act of 2020 is “almost depleted” and that they are now drawing funds for ongoing and forthcoming repatriations from allocation under the “Bayanihan to Recover as One.”
“As of 28 December 2020, out of the ATN Fund under the GAA 2020 which is almost depleted, P598.7M was spent on repatriation alone. As we speak, we have utilized P217.4M for repatriation purposes out of the P820M allocation given through Bayanihan II,” Arriola said in a written response to queries sent by the Manila Bulletin. But beyond the huge money being spent for repatriation are the challenges and expectations that the DFA is facing everyday as it seeks to extricate stranded and distressed Filipinos abroad and reunite them with their families and loved ones. After all, the DFA is mandated to protect the rights, promote the welfare and interests and ensure the security of overseas Filipinos.
As of this writing, the DFA assisted the repatriation of nearly 350,000 nationals, about 70.7 percent of whom are land-based workers coming from at least 90 countries around the world, while the remaining 29.3 percent are seafarers from more than 150 cruise ships, oil tankers, and other bulk vessels.
Baptism of fire
Arriola recalled that as early as January 28, 2020, the Philippine Embassy in Beijing and the Philippine Consulate General in Shanghai liaised with Chinese authorities to facilitate the repatriation of some 30 Filipinos in Wuhan, the ground zero of COVID-19. On February 9, 2020, a 10-member team from the Philippines, with representatives from the DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs, personally flew to Wuhan City to bring back all 30 Filipinos. “Since then, during this COVID-19 pandemic, the men and women of the DFA have shown bravery and courage, put their own lives at risk, and gone above and beyond their call of duty to reach Filipinos, even in distant and dangerous parts of the world,” Arriola noted as she paid tribute to her colleagues in the department who have been “reaching beyond their grasp” despite limited resources.
Source: mb.com.ph