MANDAUE CITY, Cebu – Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who wanted to go home to Samboan town will now have to make travel arrangements on their own.
The municipality of Samboan announced of Saturday, December 26, the suspension of a program that provides free hotel accommodation and transportation to arriving OFWs citing the “limitation of resources.”
“The LGU (local government unit) can no longer meet the demand to individually pick-up incoming OFWs from abroad due to our LGU limitation of resources, availability of vehicle and drivers,”the municipal government said in an advisory that was posted on its official Facebook page.
While they travel on their own, arriving OFWs will still be required to first secure LGU Acceptance and subject themselves to health protocols.
“In the light of OWWA’s call to stop providing hotel accommodation upon Cebu arrival of OFWs, the LGU of Samboan will allow OFWs to go home to Samboan on their own PROVIDED he/she must have previously secured an LGU Acceptance and still subject to our health protocol and quarantine upon arrival,” the town’s advisory reads.
Photo courtesy of Chryz Ybarra, Sugbo News
Personnel of the town’s Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office made its last trip to the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) on Saturday night to fetch Mhel Niño Torres, 27-years-old and a resident of Barangay Suba.
Torres, who arrived at MCIA at around 8:30 p.m. via a sweeper flight from Manila, was the last OFW to avail of the municipal government’s program prior to its suspension.
Samboan is a fifth class municipality that is located around 150 kilometers south of Cebu City.