Returning OFWs receive by members of Balik Probinsiya teams at the General Santos City International Airport. (Photo credit: Provincial Government of South Cotabato)

BULUAN, Maguindanao, May 29 (PIA) - National Task Force COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said that upcoming transport of returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) will be properly coordinated with the receiving local government units (LGUS).

Galvez's assurance came in response to Maguindanao Governor Bai Mariam Mangudadatu's appeal that LGUs be provided with the master list of ROFs before the latter are sent off to their respective provinces.

"We accept locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and ROFs. They are welcome in Maguindanao. Our only appeal is that we will be provided with their names and addresses beforehand so that our mayors will be prepared," Gov. Mangudadatu told Sec. Galvez during the Laging Handa Network Briefing Thursday.

With such information, she added, local chief executives will be able to setup isolation facilities and barangay officials will be informed in case returning OFWs will be endorsed to them for home quarantine.

In response to the lady governor's request, Galvez said, "the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) have been instructed to prepare movement plan" which, he added, will be relayed to the LGUs.

"The regional offices of the OCD will be dispatched to assist you," he said.

Earlier this week, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte ordered the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to send home 24,000 OFWS stranded in Metro Manila.

"I apologize for what happened but our beloved president only gave us one week to send home the 24,000 OFWs," he told Gov. Mangudadatu.

Several LGU officials complained that they were only informed to fetch an undetermined number of ROF on the day of their arrival in a designated airports or sea ports.

The provincial government of Maguindanao have received returning OFWs from airports in Davao City, General Santos City and Cotabato City as well as sea port in Cagayan de Oro City, Gov. Mangudadatu said.

According to Sec. Galvez, at least 42,000 OFWs are coming home in June. The number could reach to 250,000 individuals by the end of the year. (DED-PIA XII)