BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – As the sugar milling season opens, 5,000 sacadas or sugar migrant workers from Antique are expected to work in Negros Occidental, said Zeaphard Gerhart Caelian, Provincial Disaster Management Program Division chief.
Caellian said 300 sacadas arrived Thursday last week, bringing the total to 500 workers already in the province.
These migratory laborers work mostly as cane cutters in vast sugar plantations.
Caellian said all sacadas will be tested for coronavirus disease 2019.
While waiting for their results, they will be quarantined in the sugar farms where they will work.
“They will only be allowed to work when they test negative for the disease,” said Caellian.
The sacadas would be arriving by batches so the provincial government won’t be overwhelmed.
The COVID-19 tests will be shouldered by their recruiters./PN
