“All of them, from Batanes to Jolo, had to go to Metro Manila for medical examinations required by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), despite supposed OFW one-stop shops in provincial airports,” said Pampanga 1st District Rep. Joseller Guiao in an interview with Punto.
The policy applies to Filipinos flying for jobs abroad for the first time. This means that all OFWs, estimated by the Philippine Statistics Authority to number 15.5 million in Northern and Central Luzon provinces alone, had once complied with such requirement. Guiao said this was what the House committee on transportation and communication found out the other day in a hearing held mainly to look into the cancellation of some 1,000 domestic and international flights at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) during the recent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in Manila.
This, even as he noted that despite the availability of the Clark International Airport here, only very few of the suspended flights at NAIA were diverted to Clark.
The committee, headed by Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento, named Guiao as the head of its technical working group to submit by Dec. 10 its recommendations on how to prevent cancellation of flights during major international events, as well as on how to disperse the medical requirements for OFWs in the provinces.
Guiao said that during the House hearing, representatives from the POEA pointed to the Department of Health as being responsible for designating hospitals and clinics which can give medical clearances for first-time OFWs.
“Unfortunately, the DOH representative during the hearing was merely a quarantine officer who had no knowledge on the issue,” he said.
Guiao said that limiting the medical requirement to hospitals and clinics in Metro Manila defeats the concept of onestop shops for OFWs in provincial airports. “It just doesn’t make sense because there are modern hospitals, such as The Medical City in Clark, which can provide health examinations for first time OFW’s,” he noted.
“I suspect that this policy on medical requirements is one of the reasons why some first-time OFWs from Northern and Central Luzon opt to leave via the NAIA instead of the nearer Clark airport,” he said.
Guiao also lamented the failure of authorities to fully implement the concept of twin international airports by giving equal importance to the Clark airport and NAIA. This, he said was reflected in the failure of authorities to fully use Clark as alternative for the 1,000 flights suspended at NAIA during the APEC summit.
He blamed the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) for this, noting that CAB has the authority to issue permits to airlines for operations in various airports in the country. “The agency can mandate airlines to establish some regular flights at Clark as condition for giving permits for flights at NAIA,” he noted.
