17 displaced OFWs arrive from Haiti


July 14, 2019
 

By

Willy M. Balasa
 
People's Journal

SEVENTEEN displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), including 11 children arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on board a Philippine Airlines flight from Haiti yesterday.

Ivy Joy Cruz, a warehouse manager in Port Au Prince, said due to public discontentment, the repatriates and their children living near the business area of New Delma were traumatized of continuous firing of guns and burning of vehicles  crossing the protest lines.
Cruz said  most of the protesters are young people  who used trees and large rocks to block the roads as piles of old tires were set on fire to create clouds of black smoke.
It was learned that some were killed and vehicles were burned while some gangs looted the groceries nearby as oppositions allegedly blocked the main streets of the capital and other cities. The civil unrest is expected to continue the upcoming days.
“We decided to repatriate mostly kids back to Manila while the rest especially men stayed to monitor the situation. If the situation gets worst in the coming weeks,  we will leave and repatriate the remaining OFWs in Haiti,” Cruz said.
A socio-economic crisis, the devaluation of the local currency against the US dollar and price increases have fueled Haiti’s public discontent. The protests involved high degree of violence, including attacks on public buildings and private companies, burning of gas stations, banks, and markets.

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