President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. was at Villamor Air Base Monday morning to personally receive the latest batch of overseas Filipino workers repatriated from the Middle East aboard a government-chartered flight.
Several cabinet officials joined the President for the arrival, including Department of Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo J. Cacdac, OWWA Administrator Patricia Yvonne Caunan, Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian, and Department of Health Undersecretary Gloria Balboa.
The flight carried 343 Filipinos — 317 OFWs and 26 dependents — drawn from Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. It was the fourth government-chartered repatriation mission since operations began on March 5 and the first to consolidate workers from four countries onto a single aircraft.
Workers from Bahrain and Kuwait had crossed land borders into Saudi Arabia ahead of the flight, assisted by DMW-OWWA Rapid Response Teams and Philippine embassy personnel. OFWs from Qatar were similarly escorted to Riyadh, where the group staged before departing for Manila.
