CLOSE to 400 Filipino seamen were flown in by two chartered planes from Italy to the premier airport Saturday afternoon, the first batch of an estimated 4,000 Filipino seafarers rendered jobless by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Flights NEOS384 and NEOS362, both B787 planes, landed at past 4 p.m. Saturday and representatives from several government agencies welcomed the group at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).
“The repatriation of Filipino crew on cruise ships has been ongoing ever since the Diamond Princess,” the DFA said in a statement, referring to the cruise liner that was marooned off Yokohama for two weeks.
The DFA said it “coordinates with the manning agencies, the crew and foreign authorities to quickly repatriate once there is a quarantine area identified and checked by the responsible agencies here. We expect several more such repatriations in the coming weeks.”
The 370 seamen who arrived Saturday were crewmen if three different cruise ships from Italy, preceded by a small batch of 13 seamen from Spain.
Of the seafarers, 348 are from MV Costa Luminosa and a combined 22 from MV Grandiosa and MV Opera. These ships docked in Rome after they were recalled by their mother company in the wake of the pandemic that threatened to close all major ports to returning cruise ships.
The DFA explained that the global freeze on international travels forced the Philippine government to resort to chartered flights, which in this case “was made possible through the efforts of the Philippine Embassy in Rome, the Philippine Consulate General in Milan, and the DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs.”
The DFA worked closely with the Department of Health, Department of Labor and Employment and the Office of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Department of Transportation, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the local manning agencies in the Philippines for the seamless repatriation of the Filipino crew.
BusinessMirror gathered that the 370 seafarers were brought to a hotel in Pasig City.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr., had fretted on Saturday about the still-uncertain quarantine quarters for some of the expected total of 4,000 returning seafarers.
Earlier, Vivencio Dizon, president-CEO and vice-chairman of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) had offered to receive the returning seafarers at the Athletes’ Village, former site of the 2019 SEA Games.
Earlier this month, the same venue was used to quarantine over 400 OFWs from the Diamond Princess. Locsin praised Dizon’s offer, saying; “There’s hope they will be treated well. Vince Dizon, one of the handful of intelligent people extant—has offered first-class facilities.”
Last week, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) authorized the OWWA to issue the certifications “it may deem appropriate to the concerned OFWs.”
Task force spokesman, Karlo Nograles in a televised speech on state-run PTV-4 said: “It means distressed OFWs could be accommodated in hotels or similar establishments.”
Besides Costa Magica and Costa Favolosa, the MS Zaandam is on its way to Florida, coming from South America, with 203 Filipino crew members.
Image credits: AP/Jae C. Hong