New escape route planned for Filipinos in Lebanon
Sunday, August 06, 2006
FILIPINO workers fleeing Lebanon will be evacuated by boat from Beirut to Syria after the land routes out of Lebanon were bombed by Israeli jets Friday, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said Saturday.
At the weekly Kapihan sa Sulô news forum Conejos said that Filipino evacuees will have to take a boat from the coastal area of Beirut to the Syrian port of Latakia, because the bridges linking Tripoli to Al Arida border near Syria were destroyed Friday.
“With the land route closed, we just have to explore how we could make that very immediate connection from the sea [of Beirut] straight to the port [in Syria],” he said.
Conejos said at least 450 OFWs were awaiting evacuation in Beirut. He said Task Force Lebanon, led by Ambassador Roy Cimatu, will go to Beirut to explore other options for safely transporting Filipinos out of the war-torn country.
“We have set an internal target just among us. In the next six to eight days we should have reached 10,000 OFWs. And when I say ‘reached’ that means we’ve actually talked to them, told them that the President wants them home; asked them to proceed to our relocation site,” Conejos said.
The task force has designated three pickup points for Filipinos who want to join the evacuation: Seidu, which would take care of the entire southern Lebanon; Zahle, the eastern area; and Tripoli, for northern Lebanon. There is also the alternative relocation center, with Beirut itself as the fourth pickup point.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it will evacuate the third batch of Filipinos from Beirut by sea to Cyprus following the bombing of the land route to the Syrian border.
IOM Manila spokesman Ruffy Villanueva told The Manila Times on Saturday the IOM has secured clearance to ship Filipinos in Beirut to Cyprus. He said, however, there is no date yet as to when the workers will arrive.
Last night the second IOM-chartered flight carrying 455 Filipinos arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
The IOM earlier announced that the third batch of Filipinos was due to arrive Sunday.
Ida Mae Fernandez, IOM project officer, said the IOM has deferred the original repatriation plan after the “change in situation” in Beirut.
In a statement issued on Friday on its website, the IOM said an IOM convoy carrying 470 Filipinos and 250 Sri Lankans was to leave using the coastal highway to the Al Arida border crossing via Tripoli.
In Malacañang, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said President Arroyo has joined the growing number of world leaders seeking a peaceful solution to the war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Complying with the President’s order to evacuate all Filipinos in Lebanon, the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) has increased its standby fund to P500 million.
Bunye said on Saturday that the government is adopting a twin approach to arrive at a win-win solution that would ensure the safety of Filipino workers and as well as the promotion of a peaceful solution to the crisis.
“The situation is very fluid and our crisis team is exploring and exhausting all options to get our nationals into safe zones by finding and establishing alternative but secure egress from Lebanon,” Bunye said.
“At the diplomatic level, we are supporting all moves toward an early truce which is key to the security of our workers but in the meantime, we are working with all international institutions that are involved in safe have and travel issues on the ground,” he said.
Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said at a press conference the third round of funding increase initiated by the OWWA was necessary following the escalation in the fighting.
The OWWA allocated $2 million days after the war broke out and another $2 million the following week for a total of $4 million or roughly P210 million for evacuating and repatriating OFWs from Lebanon.
Labor Undersecretary for International Affairs Manuel G. Imson said 22 Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) officers in Beirut, Tel Aviv in Israel, and Damascus in Syria are assisting the OFWs in Lebanon.
Imson said the officers include social workers, and crucially, female POLO officers capable of assisting the female OFWs in Lebanon.
For his part, OWWA Administrator Marianito D. Roque reported that more than P100 million from the P500 million allocated by the OWWA had already been spent for bringing home OFWs from Lebanon.
He said the P500-million OWWA allocation is on top of the P150 million from the DFA and the P500-million supplementary budget appropriated by Congress.
Roque belied insinuations that the OWWA trust fund has been squandered. On the contrary, he said, the government had not only increased the fund to an unprecedented level of more than P8 billion but has implemented efforts to ensure that it remains “safe and intact.”
He said part of the effort to ensure the integrity of the OFW Trust Fund is the OWWA’s effort to recover some P489 million invested in the Smokey Mountain Project Asset Pool in the 1990s.--Jonathan M. Hicap and William B. Depasupil
FILIPINO workers fleeing Lebanon will be evacuated by boat from Beirut to Syria after the land routes out of Lebanon were bombed by Israeli jets Friday, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said Saturday.
At the weekly Kapihan sa Sulô news forum Conejos said that Filipino evacuees will have to take a boat from the coastal area of Beirut to the Syrian port of Latakia, because the bridges linking Tripoli to Al Arida border near Syria were destroyed Friday.
“With the land route closed, we just have to explore how we could make that very immediate connection from the sea [of Beirut] straight to the port [in Syria],” he said.
Conejos said at least 450 OFWs were awaiting evacuation in Beirut. He said Task Force Lebanon, led by Ambassador Roy Cimatu, will go to Beirut to explore other options for safely transporting Filipinos out of the war-torn country.
“We have set an internal target just among us. In the next six to eight days we should have reached 10,000 OFWs. And when I say ‘reached’ that means we’ve actually talked to them, told them that the President wants them home; asked them to proceed to our relocation site,” Conejos said.
The task force has designated three pickup points for Filipinos who want to join the evacuation: Seidu, which would take care of the entire southern Lebanon; Zahle, the eastern area; and Tripoli, for northern Lebanon. There is also the alternative relocation center, with Beirut itself as the fourth pickup point.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it will evacuate the third batch of Filipinos from Beirut by sea to Cyprus following the bombing of the land route to the Syrian border.
IOM Manila spokesman Ruffy Villanueva told The Manila Times on Saturday the IOM has secured clearance to ship Filipinos in Beirut to Cyprus. He said, however, there is no date yet as to when the workers will arrive.
Last night the second IOM-chartered flight carrying 455 Filipinos arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
The IOM earlier announced that the third batch of Filipinos was due to arrive Sunday.
Ida Mae Fernandez, IOM project officer, said the IOM has deferred the original repatriation plan after the “change in situation” in Beirut.
In a statement issued on Friday on its website, the IOM said an IOM convoy carrying 470 Filipinos and 250 Sri Lankans was to leave using the coastal highway to the Al Arida border crossing via Tripoli.
In Malacañang, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said President Arroyo has joined the growing number of world leaders seeking a peaceful solution to the war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Complying with the President’s order to evacuate all Filipinos in Lebanon, the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) has increased its standby fund to P500 million.
Bunye said on Saturday that the government is adopting a twin approach to arrive at a win-win solution that would ensure the safety of Filipino workers and as well as the promotion of a peaceful solution to the crisis.
“The situation is very fluid and our crisis team is exploring and exhausting all options to get our nationals into safe zones by finding and establishing alternative but secure egress from Lebanon,” Bunye said.
“At the diplomatic level, we are supporting all moves toward an early truce which is key to the security of our workers but in the meantime, we are working with all international institutions that are involved in safe have and travel issues on the ground,” he said.
Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said at a press conference the third round of funding increase initiated by the OWWA was necessary following the escalation in the fighting.
The OWWA allocated $2 million days after the war broke out and another $2 million the following week for a total of $4 million or roughly P210 million for evacuating and repatriating OFWs from Lebanon.
Labor Undersecretary for International Affairs Manuel G. Imson said 22 Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) officers in Beirut, Tel Aviv in Israel, and Damascus in Syria are assisting the OFWs in Lebanon.
Imson said the officers include social workers, and crucially, female POLO officers capable of assisting the female OFWs in Lebanon.
For his part, OWWA Administrator Marianito D. Roque reported that more than P100 million from the P500 million allocated by the OWWA had already been spent for bringing home OFWs from Lebanon.
He said the P500-million OWWA allocation is on top of the P150 million from the DFA and the P500-million supplementary budget appropriated by Congress.
Roque belied insinuations that the OWWA trust fund has been squandered. On the contrary, he said, the government had not only increased the fund to an unprecedented level of more than P8 billion but has implemented efforts to ensure that it remains “safe and intact.”
He said part of the effort to ensure the integrity of the OFW Trust Fund is the OWWA’s effort to recover some P489 million invested in the Smokey Mountain Project Asset Pool in the 1990s.--Jonathan M. Hicap and William B. Depasupil
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