Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello is requesting the United Kingdom and Germany to provide COVID-19 vaccines to Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) if they want to hire more Filipino healthcare workers.

In a Senate hearing last week, Bello said that the UK and Germany are appealing to the government to remove the cap of 5,000 healthcare workers to be deployed to their countries.

International Labor Affairs Bureau Director Alice Visperas said that Bello already set the Philippine conditions before requesting the President to reconsider the cap.

“Nilagay natin don na mreview yung 2002 at 2003 agreement with the UK may dalawang bilateral agreement atyo don at matagal na siya. Yung pangalawa yung hiling na vaccine na mabigyan tayo sa Pilipinas lalo na sa ating mga OFWs,” Visperas said.

The labor official added that Bello only wants to ensure that OFWs will not be left behind if countries will demand for vaccinated workers since the country has yet to roll out its mass vaccination program.

“Importante sa mga OFW na papaalis karamihan sa mga bansa ngayon na kumukuha ng worker gusto na nila may vaccine na yung kinukuha ng worker at ito ang gusto ni Labor Sec Bello na magkaroon ng vaccine ang OFWs,” she added.

Visperas said that there is no figure on how many COVID-19 vaccines Bello has requested for OFWs but it should be around the 600,000 figure of displaced OFWs.