By Daisy C L Mandap
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| An earlier flight booked by the Consulate for stranded passengers |
About 300 Filipino migrant workers stranded in Hong Kong are set
to be flown home on two separate Philippine Airlines flights tomorrow, May 26,
and on June 1, ending months of uncertainty and despair for most of them.
This was revealed by the Consulate, which has asked the
government’s Inter-Agency Task Force to allow PAL to fly in more passengers than
what it is allowed under pandemic-related travel restrictions.
“It’s a go for
tomorrow’s repat (repatriation) flight, but the approval is for 150, not 200. The
next one is scheduled for June 1,” said Consul Paulo Saret, head of the
Consulate’s assistance to nationals section.
The IATF has set a daily cap of 1,500 arrivals in Manila each
day starting in mid-March this year, ostensibly to decongest quarantine facilities.
The Consulate has
been requesting for 200 extra seats on each PAL flight that leaves Hong Kong so
it could fly home its hundreds of passengers who have been stuck here for months
because of repeated flight cancellations.
Among those set to
fly home tomorrow is April Abella, who was earlier devastated by news that her mother
had passed on, leaving her three young children without a caregiver.
To compound the
problem, her eldest child has been sick, forcing her husband to stop working so
he could look after their children.
April knows that
with the flight delays and the mandatory hotel quarantine in Manila she would
have no time to say a final farewell to her mother.
But, she said: “OK lang po sa akin kahit madalaw ko na lang
sa puntod niya ang mommy namin,” she said. “At maipagamot ko yung anak ko na maysakit.”
(It’s ok with me to
just visit my mother’s grave, and visit my sick child)
April's PAL flight was
cancelled twice in the past, leaving her at her wit’s end trying to find a way
to go home.
She was greatly
relieved when told she would be put in the priority list for tomorrow’s flight
by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
“Naiiyak po ako sa tuwa,” she said (I am
so happy I could cry).
Another worker who
is happy to be finally on the way home is Ginalyn V., who is three months’
pregnant and holder of a PAL ticket that has already been rebooked twice.
Ginalyn was starting
to get desperate since she was terminated and she was running out of funds. Thus,
she was overjoyed when OWWA called her Monday to say she was going to be
included in the first flight out for the stranded passengers.
Only one problem
remained, and that was a medical certificate that would assure the airline that
she was fit to fly in her condition.
Luckily, soon after
she got the call from OWWA, Ginalyn found help from PathFinders, a non-government organization
that assists pregnant women migrants. When she went there for an appointment, a
doctor was around, and she got the certificate that she wanted.
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| Jovelyn is happy to be home, and quarantine in one of the most luxurious hotels in town |
Another pregnant
worker should have been on the arranged flight, but after four flight
cancellations, Jovelyn Racadio could no longer wait and decided to dump her PAL
ticket and book with Cebu Pacific instead.
Worried that she
would no longer be allowed to fly as she was already 30 weeks pregnant, Jovelyn
decided to appeal to her former employer to just buy her a ticket with Cebu
Pacific. She left for Manila early on Monday, just two days short of the
arranged mass evacuation through PAL.
Jovelyn said she
was disheartened when the promised slots on PAL’s flight on May 19 did not push
through. She also felt humiliated when a Consulate officer allegedly told her to
stop hoping for a “repatriation” with PAL and just buy a ticket from an airline
that does not cancel flights on a regular basis.
“Masakit, hindi ako maka move on kaya lumapit
na lang ako sa amo ko, buti naawa naman,” she said in a message. (It was painful,
I could not move on so I went back to my employer to ask for help. Luckily, he
took pity on me).
“Nagpa book na ako sa amo ko ng Cebu Pacific
ma’am. May 24 po ang binook niya. Buti po pumayag siya at di na ako nakihati,”
she said in a message.
(I asked my
employer to book me with Cebu Pacific for its May 24 flight. Luckily my
employer agreed and did not make me pay for half of the ticket cost).
Jovelyn is now
happily ensconced in plush Sofitel hotel in Manila for her mandatory 10-day
quarantine, her sad experience of being pregnant and without work, and waiting
for a flight that never came, all behind her.
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| Many of those who dared not pin their hopes on a 'mercy flight' switched airlines |
Another worker who
decided to put an end to the waiting game is Maricel C., who had been jobless
for nearly a month, and whose PAL flight was cancelled three times.
She had pinned her
hopes on getting onto tomorrow’s flight, and when told that she was no 248 on
the list and would likely be accommodated only on the June 1 flight, she went
back to her employer to beg for help.
“Naawa po amo ko, binilhan ako ng bagong
ticket po kanina kaya flight ko bukas. Yung slot ko pwede nang ibigay sa iba,”
she said Monday night. (My employer took pity on me and bought me a new ticket
today, so I’ll be leaving tomorrow. They could just give my slot to someone
else).
Earlier, Maricel
pleaded to be allowed to board the earlier flight, saying she was “walang wala
na” (totally broke).
In a message to the
SUN, she said: “Uwing uwi na po ako
talaga at walang wala na. Nagkasakit nga po ako kaya ako nagdesisyon na di na
mag renew sa amo ko kasi dalawang beses ako nahimatay dati.” (I really want
home and I am really broke. I got sick so I decided not to renew my contract
with my employer. I fainted twice before).
“Dito sa boarding house magkakasakit ang mga
tao kasi hindi nakakakain ng tama dahil walang pambili ng pagkain. Tulungan po
ninyo ako. May 1 pa ako nakababa sa amo ko.”
(Here in my
boarding house, people would likely get sick because they are not eating
properly, they don’t have money to buy food. Please help me. I have been out of
my employer’s house since May 1).
Had she waited just
a few minutes more, Maricel could have been on PAL’s flight. On being told
about her plight, OWWA’s welfare officer Virsie Tamayao got someone to call
Maricel but she could no longer be reached.
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| PAL blames arrival cap in Manila for repeated cancellations of its flights |
Also in the motley
group is a stroke patient currently at Ruttonjee Hospital in Wan Chai whose PAL
flight was also canceled earlier, and was rebooked to Jun 5.
Cynthia Tellez,
general manager of Mission for Migrant Workers, asked OWWA to help get her on
tomorrow’s flight so the patient could be with her family sooner.
Another happy passenger
is longtime Filipino community leader Lelita Lastima who is busy packing her
stuff as of this writing, anxious not to be left behind.
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| Jolas is one of the most-liked volunteers at the Consulate |
Lelita, who is
Jolas to many of her fellow Filipinos in Hong Kong, decided to leave the city
where she has worked for an incredible 35 years, to be with her family.
Jolas has been
saying that her lawyer-son had been asking her to go back home for good.
However, she kept begging off, as she was still enjoying her life here, where
she has been one of the longest serving volunteers at the Consulate.
The end of Jolas’ long
sojourn in Hong Kong puts a positive spin to a trip that would have otherwise
been full of many sad tales from hundreds of other Filipino workers who were
left stranded and unattended for months.
The travails they
encountered trying to get home beg the question of how this could have happened
when as Filipino nationals, they should not have been barred from returning to
the country.
Why were they
reduced to begging for help and pleading to get on board a flight home when
they were issued plane tickets they paid dearly for? Who should be responsible?
Their return home
should not put an end to giving them answers, if not justice, to what they were
made to go through amid one of the most distressing periods of our time.
