NOTE: This story was first published in The Bohol Chronicle’s Sunday print edition.
Bohol has already accommodated 781 repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and 344 locally stranded individuals (LSIs) as of yesterday.
Two batches of returning Boholanos arrived yesterday (May 30)- -the first comprised 15 OFWs who arrived at 1:14 a.m. at the Bohol Panglao International Airport (BPIA) through an Air Asia sweeper flight, and the second comprised 39 OFWs and 54 LSIs who arrived at 4 a.m. at the Tagbilaran port onboard a Lite Shipping vessel.
Of the 54 LSIs, 24 were headed to Jagna, one to Dauis, four to Panglao, 21 to San Miguel, two to Corella, one to Lila and one to Loboc.
On May 29, at least 55 LSIs (32 headed for Calape, 13 for Talibon, and 10 for Baclayon) arrived at 7 p.m. at Tubigon Port.
At 2:30 a.m. on the same day, 49 OFWs and one LSI arrived at the BPIA onboard an Air Asia aircraft.
On Wednesday afternoon (May 27), there were 170 OFWs who arrived at the Tagbilaran Port, and another batch of 55 OFWs arrived at the BPIA onboard AirAsia; then another batch of 48 OFWs arrived at 11:20 p.m. at the BPIA onboard an Air Asia aircraft.
Three batches of OFWs arrived on May 26- -60 at 3:30 a.m. at Tagbilaran port onboard Lite Ferry, then 8 OFWs followed at 6 a.m. through Tubigon port, and another batch of 127 followed at 8 p.m. at the BPIA.
On May 25, there were 40 OFWs who arrived at 8 a.m. at Tubigon port.
On May 24, there were 35 OFWs and four LSIs who arrived at 12 a.m. at Tagbillaran port.
The 646 OFWs who arrived last week were among the 24,000 OFWs stranded in Manila after the mass layoff in foreign countries because of Covid-19.
The first batch of 163 SLIs were those stranded in Leyte when they were caught racing with time and was actually in transit to Bohol when the community quarantine of Bohol took effect on March 16.
They were able to return to Bohol through Ubay on March 22 through a mercy mission of the provincial government.
On April 27, the first batch of 17 OFWs came from Cebu and 48 more followed from Manila via Cebu.
On May 9, another batch of 51 OFWs arrived from Cebu.
Another batch of 19 OFWs arrived on May 22, together with 12 LSIs from Cebu.
NOTE: This story was first published in The Bohol Chronicle’s Sunday print edition.