By Vir B. Lumicao
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| OWWA Welfare Officer Virsie Tamayao (with black mask) was among those who saw the stranded passengers off |
A long and frustrating wait by the remaining 88 stranded
Filipino workers in Hong Kong ended today,
June 1, when they were flown home by Philippine Airlines, the carrier that had
cancelled their bookings repeatedly.
At 10:30am, the last two of the passengers were escorted
into the departure gate by officers from the Consulate, who made sure all the
stranded workers with valid PAL tickets who were at the Hong Kong International
Airport were boarded.
“We’ll make sure that no one will be left behind, whether
they have registered with OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration) or
not,” said Consul Robert Quintin, chief of the PCG’s cultural section.
Quintin said PAL deployed a smaller aircraft for Flight
PR301 that carried a total of 150 passengers. He said the stranded workers made
up the bulk of those passengers.
He and Arnel de Luna, officer of the Consulate’s assistance
to nationals section, walked up to the departure gate with the last few
passengers and the Hong Kong ground staff who
checked them in.
On May 26, a total of 150 workers flew home after the PCG, via
the Department of Foreign Affairs, asked the Inter-Agency Task Force on Covid
Control to increase PAL’s daily passenger arrival quota at Ninoy Aquino
International Airport
so it could fly them home.
As in the earlier batch, there were Chinese employers who
went to the airport along with their children to send off their departing
workers.
One employing family, surnamed Fu, assisted their helper
Junnalee Villasotes as she checked in to make sure she had not forgotten
anything.
“Junnalee was part of our family. She had been with us for
more than 10 years,” said Idason Fu, who said she was still small when Villasotes
moved in with the family.
“I didn’t go to work today so I can send her off. I will be
missing her because she took care of me. She’s a family member,” said the young
woman.
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| Idason (rightmost) skipped work to join her parents in seeing off her beloved nanny, Junnalee |
Like their daughter, the Fu couple said they would miss the
helper because she was very good and trustworthy.
“We like her very much. We trust her. I and my husband went
to work everyday and Junnalee took care of our daughter until she grew up and
she looked after our house,” Mrs Fu said. “Oh, she also took care of our pet
dog,” she added.
Villasotes said it was time for her to be with her family as
her three children need her, too.
One local family including a grandfather saw off their
tearful helper until the departure gate, with the female employer helping her scan
her passport at the electronic turnstile. The Filipina said she had served the
family for 16 years but the children had grown up.
Another local family with two toddlers queued up with the
helper as she sorted out her pre-boarding documents at the check-in counter.
Some of the stranded workers who were able to fly home even
without confirming their booking with OWWA or PAL had staked out at Hong Kong International Airport
since Monday hoping to set a seat on the flight.
Geraldine said that after two cancellations, she was confirmed
for Tuesday’s flight but PAL called her last night and told her the flight was
full.
At 10am, she waited in the queue while De Luna interceded
with the check-in staff for Geraldine and about five other passengers who were
not booked for today.
“Nandito na kami kasi
sa airport kahapon pa at nagbabaka-sakaling maisakay kami. Hindi na kami nakadaan
sa OWWA,” the helper said. (We’ve been here at the airport since yesterday
hoping we’d be boarded. We had no more time to drop in at OWWA.)
With her was Elisa, a worker who said she had been in Hong Kong for a total of 27 years, serving her last
employer for the past quarter-century.
A farmer’s wife, she said she was going home for good
because two of her sons are now engineers, the older one being 31 years old.
Her employer has given her long service pay, she said, so she has something to
start a small business.
At 10:15 am, Geraldine and Elisa were issued boarding passes
for the 11:25am flight. They hurried to the departure gate and joined their fellow
stranded workers in waiting for the boarding call.
The workers had been stuck here for several months due to repeated
flight cancellations that the airline blamed on outside factors such as the
pandemic-related lockdowns in Metro Manila and Hong Kong’s ban on flights from Manila and other
countries.
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| Consulate officers led by Quintin (in white shirt) escorted the passengers up to the boarding gates |
Originally, over 400 had registered with OWWA for flights
that the PCG would arrange. But, frustrated by months of waiting, many eventually
bought tickets on other carriers.
Quintin said the flight this morning practically wiped out
the backlog of stranded workers. “We’ll begin from zero until we have a need
for another special flight,” he said.
Quintin led a team of PCG, OWWA, Philippine Overseas Labor
Office and Social Welfare officers who worked until midnight on Monday
contacting the passengers and finalizing the roster. Then they woke up early to
go to the airport and assist the workers with last-minute documentation.
