14 Filipino engineers near Tripoli conflict zone all safe
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Embassy in Libya has re-established contact with 14 Filipino engineers living near Tripoli where intense fighting has been taking place since April and assured that they are all safe and accounted for.
In a Twitter update on Thursday, Chargé d’ Affaires Elmer Cato said the embassy was finally able to contact the group of Filipino engineers “after several days of trying.”
“[The Philippine Embassy in Libya] was finally able to reestablish contact this afternoon with a group of Filipino engineers in compound outside Tripoli near where heavy fighting has been taking place in past two months,” Cato said.
After several days of trying, @PhinLibya was finally able to reestablish contact this afternoon with a group of Filipino engineers in compound outside Tripoli near where heavy fighting has been taking place in past two months. All are safe and accounted for. @teddyboylocsin
— Elmer G Cato (@elmer_cato) May 29, 2019
“All are safe and accounted for,” he added.
Cato told INQUIRER.net that according to the group of Filipino engineers, they lost cellular signal “from time to time.”
“We got worried because we check on them regularly and we never had such issues before,” he said.
“We reiterated the need for them to relocate to safer grounds and even offered the Embassy as temporary shelter for them,” he added.
Last May 28, Cato said that the 14 Filipinos “have been incommunicado” since the week before.
“As heavy fighting continues to rage in the outskirts of Tripoli, [The Philippine Embassy in Libya] been desperately trying to reach a group of Filipino engineers who refuse to leave their compound in the frontline,” he said.
As heavy fighting continues to rage in the outskirts of Tripoli, @PhinLibya has been desperately trying to reach a group of Filipino engineers who refuse to leave their compound in the frontline. They have been incommunicado for the past four days. @teddyboylocsin @DFAPHL https://t.co/TCSUVl4nyg
— Elmer G Cato (@elmer_cato) May 28, 2019
The latest batch of 15 Filipinos, including five minors and two Islamic scholars, arrived in Manila Thursday afternoon from Libya.
The Philippine government has so far evacuated 70 Filipinos from Libya. (Editor: Gilbert S. Gaviola)
READ: 15 more Filipinos to be evacuated from Tripoli — PH envoy
