Lifting of travel ban for HK, Macau OFWs ‘right thing to do’—Recto
The decision of the government to allow Filipinos to return to their work in Hong Kong and Macau is a step in the right direction.
This will save the jobs of thousands of Filipinos who were vacationing in their home country when their government imposed a travel ban to those two places.
The lifting of the ban, in effect, rescues these stranded workers from unemployment and their families from penury.
In their appeal to be allowed to travel back to their waiting employers who value their services, they warned that injury from certain loss of income is greater than the possibility of being infected by the virus.
As to the latter, the SARS-tested health system of Hong Kong is in a better position to treat coronavirus patients than our hospitals here, and the HK government has assured us that they will take good care of our people.
Our compatriots in Hong Kong and Macau form one powerhouse when it comes to sending money to their loved ones back home.
About a quarter million of them remitted close to P100 billion from 2018 to 2019.
This economic contribution is so great that the government could either subsidize or shoulder the plane fare of the stranded OFWs, because the cost is a small fraction of their remittances of about 1 billion pesos every 10 days.
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