Villanueva urges IATF to ensure quality quarantine facilities for arriving Pinoys

Arriving Filipinos who are mandated to undergo 14-day quarantine must be accommodated in sanitary quarantine facilities, Senator Joel Villanueva said Thursday.

This was in reaction to a reported complaint of some Filipinos from South Korea on the "unlivable" quarantine hotel in Tagaytay City where they had been sent to earlier this week.

"Sa tagal na po nating ginagawa ang pagtatalaga ng quarantine facilities para sa mga umuuwing mga kababayan natin at OFW, hindi na po dapat nagkakaroon ng mga ganitong insidente," Villanueva, chairperson of the Senate committee on labor, said in a message to reporters.

"Hinihiling po natin sa IATF at iba pang kinauukulan na siguruhing katanggap-tanggap naman ang estado ng quarantine facilities at nababayaran ito sa tamang oras," he added.

Since March 2020, all arriving Filipino passengers are being allowed entry to the country subject to quarantine procedures, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The Philippine government recently imposed a temporary travel ban for passengers from 20 countries with cases of the UK coronavirus variant but Filipinos from these areas will still be allowed entry with the requirement that they complete the 14-day quarantine at a government facility even if their RT-PCR tests show negative results.—AOL, GMA News