SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — TWO returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were quarantined in a hotel here in Subic gave birth to healthy babies’ days after arrival from Saudi Arabia.
This was one sidelight in the ongoing government repatriation program, which has tapped the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) as an entry point for Philippine Airlines (PAL) flights ferrying home workers and other returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs).
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the new mothers were among the 299 passengers who arrived last July 7 aboard PAL’s Flight PR5683 from Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
Consistent with health protocols, the new arrivals were quarantined for at least seven days in accredited hotels and other accommodation facilities inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
However, Eisma said that on July 9, one of the workers in quarantine at the Vista Marina Hotel here, a 32-year-old resident of Cavite, went into labor and was brought by Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) personnel to a government hospital in Olongapo City where she gave birth.
The following day, July 10, another OFW under quarantine at the same hotel, this time a 36-year-old
from North Cotabato, experienced labor pain and was also brought to the Olongapo hospital for childbirth.
“Our information from the One-Stop-Shop Command at the Subic airport was that both deliveries went well and that the mothers and their babies were healthy,” Eisma said.
“Following completion of the mandatory isolation and negative RT-PCR test results, they were soon discharged from the Subic quarantine facility,” she added.
As an alternate entry point for returning OFWs, Subic has received a total of four PAL flights since July 7, including the latest flight this morning that brought in 185 OFWs from Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
The first PAL flight scheduled here for July 5 was diverted to the Clark Freeport due to strong tailwind.
Four more OFW flights by PAL are set to arrive in Subic on July 24, 25 and 27 and on August 3.
Subic became an alternate port of entry for OFWs and other returning overseas Filipinos in line with government policy to limit arrivals in all international airports in the country to just 1,500 passengers per day to comply with health protocols during the Covid-19 pandemic.