ZEAPHARD Caellian, head of the Provincial Incident Management Team (PIMT), is asking for a moratorium be declared on returning overseas Filipinos (ROF) as their influx has "overwhelmed" hotels in Bacolod City.
"I have recommended to Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson to ask for a moratorium on the ROFs from the national government because of the situation here," Caelian said.
Local hotels and inns in Bacolod City are overwhelmed, and Negros Occidental has already received about 800 overseas Filipino workers since the moratorium has been lifted Saturday, Caelian said.
Caellian added the number is more than what the local hotels and inns can handle.
He said after the provincial government was bashed on social media for alleged "poor quarantine facilities," the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) took over in accommodating them.
What the province committed was the transport of the repatriated OFWs from the airport to hotels contracted by Owwa, as well as provide a team to take swab tests, he said.
Caellian said that since Saturday, August 22 until Sunday, there were a total of eight flights instead of just two flights a day as earlier agreed between Owwa and the provincial government.
"OWWA can only provide 580 hotel rooms but what came in were 770 OFWs," he pointed out.
"We called on local government units this afternoon to fetch their OFWs and bring them to their local quarantine facility," Caellian said.
He said there are still many OFWs stranded overnight at the Bacolod- Silay Airport because no hotels will accept them.
"I called up the Owwa regional director to ask their national office to stop the return of OFWs to Negros because they cannot be accommodated anymore here," he also said.
"My first responders are tired already. They need to take a break, too," he added.
