The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will be needing an additional P7.5 billion for the repatriation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) displaced by the coronavirus pandemic, its chief said Friday.
OWWA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has requested for the amount to be used to bring home OFWs for the month of September until December.
“Our good Secretary Bello has requested for an additional P7.5 billion, which will be utilized for the remainder of the year,” he said in a virtual forum on Friday.
The P5.2 billion given to OWWA in June for the repatriation program will be good until next month, Cacdac added.
At present, he reported there are 7,500 OFWs in 175 hotel quarantine facilities in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces.
As of Friday, a total of 646,912 OFWs have been sent to their home provinces since the government started bringing them back to the country in May last year.
The P7.5 billion will be used for food, transport, and hotel expenses, which comprised 70 percent of the budget, Cacdac said, and will cover the period from September 16 to December 31, 2021.