17,000 Pinoys face evacuation from Syria

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang yesterday said it is preparing for the repatriation of at least 17,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Syria after tension escalated in the troubled Middle Eastern nation.

President Aquino said the evacuation of Filipinos in Syria was underway but it was unfortunate that only a few responded to the government’s call to leave due to the deteriorating human rights situation in the region.

Labor Undersecretary Danilo Cruz said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) would automatically impose a total ban in deployment of Filipino workers since the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) raised the alert level in Syria to 3.

The President, speaking in a press briefing after the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council meeting at the Palace yesterday, said Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario informed him that the alert level was raised to 3 in the entire Syria instead of just three cities.

“There is already a quick response team already deployed, I don’t remember exactly since when but same with Libya, there is a quick response team (deployed there) also. There are contingency plans that are actually being implemented already, among them, of course, getting the necessary vehicles to move them out,” Aquino said.

The President told reporters that the government was looking at the Syrian situation “very intensely” because most of the Filipinos there were domestic helpers.

“There are something like 17,000 of our compatriots there and 95 percent of them are domestic helpers so the assumption is they are not, it appears, that they don’t possess the ability as readily as professionals to take care of themselves,” Aquino said.

“Unfortunately, as I understood it, only a few accepted our offer to repatriate them from the beginning so I assume that most of the 17,000 (Filipinos) are still there,” he said.

Aquino said the government would take other necessary steps to ensure that Filipinos would be taken care of in Syria.

The Philippines will not cut political and economic relations with Syria but the government has expressed concern over the 17,000 Filipinos who might be affected by the unrest in that Arab country.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged countries still buying oil and gas from Syria and those sending weapons and giving political and economic support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or who “give him comfort in his brutality” to get on the right side of history.

Clinton made the call to put more pressure on al-Assad’s regime to stop the crackdown on protesters.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Malacañang was calling for a peaceful resolution to the crisis but “we are not (cutting off ties with Syria).”

DFA: Time to leave is now

Labor Undersecretary Cruz said they have just received an official notice from the DFA “so we would convene the governing board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) for the issuance of the order imposing a deployment ban.”

Cruz said that under the law, the POEA board is required to convene and approve the issuance of a resolution to terminate or impose a deployment ban.

“We are definitely complying with the rules of automatic ban upon raising of alert level 3 although we are convening the board to formalize the order,” he said.

He said as soon as the ban is imposed, all Filipino workers, including those returning to their old employers, would no longer be allowed to leave the country and seek employment in Syria.

Before DFA raised the alert, the POEA has ceased the processing of new hires and only allowed the deployment of returning workers to Syria.

Cruz, however, clarified that at the moment only three areas in Syria – Homs, Latakia and Daraa – are severely affected by the ongoing hostilities.

He said there are more than 3,800 OFWs currently employed in the three places in Syria; majority of them are domestic helpers.

Most of those Filipinos there are still reluctant to leave Syria as they insisted that the hostilities were isolated in three areas.

Del Rosario said he has directed the Philippine Embassy in Damascus to intensify its efforts to reach out to Filipinos and convince them that “now is the time to leave.”

“In view of the escalating violence in Syria, the DFA will be raising alert level 3 for the entire country of Syria, effective today,” he said.

“Under alert level 3 (voluntary repatriation), all Filipinos working and residing in Syria are enjoined to leave Syria and the Philippine government will provide for the repatriation cost,” he said.

Cruz said a report from a special team sent to assess the situation in Syria last Saturday showed that the situation in Damascus remained to be normal.

Citing a report from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Syria, Cruz said only four OFWs have already expressed their desire to be immediately repatriated to escape the hostilities in Syria.

“There are six others who are seeking repatriation, but they have other reasons like problems with their employment,” he said.

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) chief Carmelita Dimzon said the government is ready to repatriate those who would ask for their immediate return to the Philippines.

“We have a continuing repatriation from Syria and our embassy, labor and OWWA officers are already attending to the needs of our workers there,” Dimzon said.

But DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said that since the start of the revolt in Syria, no Filipino has asked to be repatriated.

In a forum yesterday morning, hosted by the Catholic Media Network and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, Hernandez said, “So far no Filipino has been affected in Syria and no one wants to be repatriated back to the Philippines; maybe they still feel safe there.”

He said that while there have been cases of repatriation, these were triggered by labor and other kinds of problems, “but not on account of the violence there.”

Hernandez gave assurance that in the event the tension escalates in Syria, the DFA and its embassy in Damascus have a contingency plan “so that if there is a need to repatriate, we could immediately take our people out.”

“Usually we have benchmarks that we try to observe when it is time to (go) to the next level (alert level 4). As of now the other benchmarks have not yet been reached but anyway we are on top of the situation and we have the necessary network and they are ready to implement our contingency plans in Syria,” he added.

He also assured the people that the embassy has also deployed people to coordinate with the Filipinos based in Syria.

About 90 percent of the estimated 17,000 OFWs are undocumented, majority of them domestic helpers, while professionals account for only a smaller percentage.

OFWs want to go home

But Migrante-Middle East said Filipinos, mostly domestic helpers who are staying in Homs, are seeking immediate evacuation.

Migrante Mideast regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said there are also about 100 OFWs awaiting repatriation from all over Syria at the moment.

He said the workers are claiming that peace and order situation in Homs has gotten worse as clashes continue and the number of casualties steadily increasing almost daily.

According to OFWs, there are about 300 Filipinos staying in Homs. They said some of their fellow OFWs have been transferred by their employers to their relatives, as they left their homes and fled out of the country.

According to the workers, Philippine Embassy personnel in Syria, in phone calls, merely advised them to take extra care, but failed to personally check on their conditions.

But Monterona admitted that it would be difficult for the Philippine Embassy to evacuate the Filipinos from the troubled areas considering the peace and order situation there.

“This is what we have been telling in the early days when the political turmoil in Syria just erupted – to immediately arrange and ready the evacuation plan and execute promptly and not to wait for the situation to become worse as what is happening there now,” he said.

Reports said Syrian forces shot dead at least 20 protestors last week, as tens of thousands demanded the overthrow of President al-Assad.

Defiant protest marches unfolded across the country despite a military crackdown that has intensified since the beginning of the fasting month of Ramadan, triggering sanctions and condemnation abroad. –Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) with Mayen Jaymalin, Evelyn Macairan, Pia Lee-Brago