SPEAKER Alan Peter Cayetano on Tuesday urged the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) to convene an inter-agency meeting to discuss how their respective programs can be integrated to respond to issues and concerns affecting overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) abroad and those who are returning to the country.

THE House committee on public accounts, chaired by Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor, wants concerned government agencies to explain further the delay in the repatriation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

HOUSE Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez hailed the initiative of the Duterte administration through Labor Secretary Silvestre “Bebot” Bello III to immediately repatriate the remains of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), including those who died of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19).

THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said 390 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) from Laos and Norway who were affected by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic arrived on Saturday.

A FORMER congressman who is a known overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs) rights advocate was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as the new deputy director general for operations of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Doha worked closely with the Qatar Ministry of Administrative Development Labor and Social Affairs for the payment of the benefits after the workers were terminated late last year by their employer.

THE Department of Labor and Employment reported that over 25,000 overseas Filipino workers stranded in different quarantine facilities have been successfully transported to their respective hometowns.

Following the approval of the substitute bill, Chairman of the committee TUCP party-list Rep. Democrito Mendoza assured that the committee will hold more hearings to check on the plight of OFWs and come up with appropriate measures to address their problems amid the pandemic.

EMPATHIZING with the plight of hundreds of overseas Filipino workers in the United Arab Emirates, most of whom are already unemployed and stranded there for months, Senator Richard J. Gordon proposed to allow more passenger flights carrying OFWs to come in.

The lifeless body of Algen Cadungog, OFW from Kuwait and resident of Demapaco Libungan, Cotabato City was discovered by her colleagues at around 6 a.m. hanging with a fabric scarf looped around her neck and the other end tied underneath the stairways inside room 45 of Liza Lodge at Cuneta Avenue, Bgy. 76 which was converted into a quarantine facility for returning OFWs.

A HOUSE leader on Sunday urged the inter-agency task force (IATF) against coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) and the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) to transport workers and students stranded in Luzon due to the extended lockdown.

House Deputy Majority Leader and Zamboanga Sibugay Rep. Wilter “Sharky” Wee Palma II said he was addressing his appeal particularly to Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Brigido “Dodo” Dulay who claimed that OFWs who underwent 14-day quarantine abroad will be allowed to go straight to their homes upon their arrival while Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Hans Cacdac maintained that all returning OFWs, even asymptomatic ones, are mandated to undergo a 14-day quarantine in facilities and hotels being provided by the government.

“In coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs, a total of 58 deportees from Abu Dhabi are presently quarantined at the WTC. We also expect that by today additional 340 repatriates and Foreign Affairs officers from Maldives will arrive and will occupy the same facility,” he added.

THE Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said it would implement the resolution of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on relaxing the deployment ban on healthcare workers.

The death toll from the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe could hit 1.8 million worldwide this year even with swift and stringent measures to stop it, according to a study from Britain's Imperial College published Thursday.