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Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Pinoys fleeing Lebanon
Filipinos working in Lebanon are fleeing after Israel started attacking the country last Wednesday.
Philippine officials scrambled yesterday to evacuate around 30,000 workers living in Lebanon and identified three churches in and around the capital Beirut as relocation sites.
About 500 Filipinos were sheltering at one church.
No Filipino was reported killed since the Israeli strikes on Lebanon began Wednesday after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-boarder raid.
Hezbollah has retaliated by firing rockets into Israel. More than 200 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the clashes.
Oil prices are also expected to soar because of the conflict.
Inform DFA
In Cebu, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration said two relatives have inquired about the safety of their families in Lebanon.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) 7 urged Cebuanos and the rest of the people in Central Visayas to inform them if they have relatives working in Lebanon so they can be given assistance.
DFA 7 Director Angel Espiritu said that so far, they have no idea if there are overseas Filipino contract workers from Cebu, Bohol, Oriental Negros or Siquijor in Lebanon because they have not received word from their central office in Manila.
Safe passage
“We cannot move all of them (Filipinos) at the same time. It has to be orderly. We have to prioritize those areas with likely targets,” said Foreign Department Undersecretary Esteban Conejos.
He said the Philippines had contacted Israel “for safe passage of Filipino evacuees if evacuation is required,” along with the Lebanese government “so we can synchronize our moves.”
A Filipino Roman Catholic priest at one church told Manila radio dzXL that evacuees there were “packed like sardines.”
The priest, who identified himself only as Father Jesse, said most of the workers, apparently domestic helpers, had been abandoned when their employers left Lebanon.
Espiritu said the Philippine consulate in Lebanon is coordinating with their Manila office.
He also said that in incidents like this, his office always works side by side with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration in repatriating OFWs. (AP)/EOB)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 18, 2006 issue)
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