More than 600 overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have arrived via Clark International Airport (CRK) this week, the first week of General Community Quarantine.
On Friday, June 5, CRK welcomed 262 passengers on board an Emirates commercial flight from Dubai, while another 342 Filipino seafarers from the Caribbean island nation of Barbados were flown home via a special Philippine Airlines flight on Saturday, June 6.
All passengers were processed in a dedicated One-Stop Shop facility where they were asked to accomplish forms to be submitted to the Bureau of Quarantine and sign an oath of undertaking for monitoring purposes.
They were also subjected to mandatory COVID-19 RT-PCR testing at the airport and then brought to a hotel assigned by either OWWA or their manning agency where they will stay until their test results come out.
The CRK One-Stop Shop is another successful collaboration between Luzon International Premier Airport Development (LIPAD) Corporation, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) with the help of the Bureau of Quarantine, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Department of Tourism, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration OWWA), Philippine National Police (PNP), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
“Clark International Airport is proud to support the government’s aim to bring home Filipinos stranded overseas. With the successful arrival of these two flights with the help of our partner agencies, we look forward to having more such flights in the coming weeks”, said Bi Yong Chungunco, Chief Executive Officer of LIPAD Corporation who manages and operates Clark International Airport.
Emirates will continue with more Clark to Dubai flights this month where eligible passengers can book and buy tickets through their website or through a partner agency. Meanwhile, another four repatriation flights via Philippine Airlines are expected to arrive in the next coming weeks.