THE PHILIPPINE government on Wednesday said it was awaiting diplomatic clearances for the repatriation of Filipinos from war-torn Lebanon.
This, as Southeast Asian leaders were expected to put focus on Middle East tensions during their four-day summits.
“We’re ready, willing and able to repatriate Filipinos at any time,” Defense Secretary Gilberto Eduardo Gerardo C. Teodoro, Jr. told President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in a Zoom conference, based on a press release from the presidential palace.
“We’re just waiting for the diplomatic clearances of the expatriates to be processed out of Beirut,” he added.
Mr. Marcos is in Laos for the 44th and 45th summits of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Before leaving Manila, he told reporters that Philippine embassies had been working on securing exit papers and transportation for Filipinos who wanted to come home.
“We are going to evacuate them,” he told Cabinet officials during the conference. “But the means of how to do that is something that we still have to determine because it is an evolving situation.”
Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Raymond Balatbat said they would exhaust all means to expedite the exit clearances.
Israeli warplanes launched more than 30 overnight air raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Oct. 6, according to the presidential palace.
As of Oct. 7, there had been no reported injuries or deaths among Filipinos, it added, noting that the airstrikes were focused on southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The palace said the Philippine Embassy in Beirut had received 1,721 applications for repatriation, 551 of whom have been repatriated and 171 were “ready for repatriation.”
Tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate following Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in response to missile attacks by the militant group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.
Israel launched a ground operation into southern Lebanon last week, as it vowed to conduct raids against “Hezbollah terror targets” that it said were an immediate threat to northern Israeli communities.
Mr. Marcos, in his departure speech on Tuesday, said no Filipino had been reported injured due to the conflict in the Middle East, referring to the “wave of attacks against Hezbollah targets in the past few days, and the consequent Iranian reprisal against Israel.”
“The Philippines urges all parties to refrain from escalating the violence and to work towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” said Mr. Marcos, whose country is eyeing a nonpermanent seat at the United Nations Security Council.
This month, the government targets to repatriate at least 162 overseas Filipino workers from Israel, the President said.
Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Eduardo Jose A. de Vega at the weekend said more than 100 Filipinos were set to be repatriated from Lebanon in batches from Oct. 11 to 28 amid Israeli bombardments.
The agency earlier said the Philippines was having a hard time securing landing rights for chartered flights.
The palace on Monday said the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) had given each repatriated OFW financial assistance worth P150,000.
“Reintegration assistance from the DMW and OWWA was also extended along with psychosocial assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development and medical assistance from the Department of Health,” it added.
“The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority also distributed training vouchers to the repatriated OFWs.” — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza