MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Richard Gordon on Tuesday urged President Rodrigo Duterte to convene the National Security Council and map out a plan to bring home more than 1 million Filipinos in the Middle East before calling a special session of Congress to fund the emergency repatriation in case a full-blown war breaks out after the United States killed Iran’s top military commander last week.
“When you ask for a budget, you have to present us with a plan on how you’re going to spend it. That’s why it’s important that we have the National Security Council prepare the parameters on how that money is going to be spent,” Gordon said at the Pandesal Forum in Quezon City.
Standby fund
“To obviate long debates, they should present already a plan of action, a structure, a strategy, so that we can make decisions properly,” he added.
Mr. Duterte on Monday said he wanted a standby fund worth “billions” for the repatriation of overseas Filipino workers and urged Congress to hold a special session for discussion of the rising tensions in the Middle East.
Tehran has warned of “severe retaliation” for last Friday’s drone attack that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Quds Force.
In response, US President Donald Trump said the US military was ready to blast 52 targets in Iran.
Gordon said one thing the government would have to decide was whether to borrow aircraft from commercial carriers, noting that the Philippines only had three C130 planes that were operational.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Tuesday said the government had two C130 aircraft, two ships and one C295 plane ready “to ferry those who want to come home.”
Repatriating more than 1 million Filipinos would be a massive undertaking, Gordon said
But Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, who was ordered by the President to prepare the groundwork for possible repatriation, indicated that his immediate concern was a relatively small number of Filipinos working at US-run facilities in Iraq, which Iran might target.
“We are estimating about a thousand Filipinos, but we will have to check because many remain uncounted,”he said.
Cimatu, who had served as special envoy to the Middle East under the Arroyo administration, said he would establish a base in Qatar for the repatriation work.
He had also recommended to the President raising the alert in Iraq to level 4, which means forced evacuation. It was still alert level 3 on Tuesday, signaling voluntary repatriation.
Special committee
Duterte met with defense officials in Malacañang on Sunday night and ordered the military to prepare its assets for evacuating Filipinos in the Middle East.
On Monday night, he created a special Cabinet committee that would draw up the evacuation plans should hostilities erupt.
It included Lorenzana, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III and Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade.
‘Will not be neutral’
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Tuesday said Manila, a Washington ally, “will not be neutral”if Filipinos were harmed.
“The President was very specific in saying last night that if the Filipinos are harmed, he will side with the Americans,” Panelo said.
“If they (Iranians) will harm the Filipinos, then the President will not sit down idly and watch,”he added, without elaborating.
He said Duterte sent presidential adviser on migrant workers Abdullah Mamao to Iran and Iraq to “deliver a special message to the Iraqi and Iranian governments of his urgent desire and wish that no Filipinos be harmed in the course of the conflict.”
But Panelo said the President would not take a position on Soleimani’s assassination.
“That’s the fight between the Americans and the Iranians. Foremost in the President’s mind is the safety of our countrymen. That’s his only concern,” he said.
Lorenzana said there were 6,600 overseas Filipino workers in Iraq and 1,100 in Iran, most of whom were married to Iranians.
He said one problem was convincing Filipinos to return home, especially if they were offered double their salaries, as what the Libyan government did during a crisis in that country several years ago.
Other senators said they were open to a special session and believed Congress would approve a supplemental budget for repatriation without delay.
Congress is on recess and would resume sessions on Jan. 20.
Lawmakers preparing
Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said the Senate was prepared to act on the President’s request and could meet any time.
Sen. Sonny Angara, who chairs the finance committee, said a supplemental budget had to originate from the House of Representatives.
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano has asked the House secretariat to prepare for a special session, according to House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez.
But he added that as of Tuesday, there was no formal Malacañang request to hold a special session.
Romualdez agreed with the President that the safety of Filipinos in the region was “our primordial concern.”—With reports from Jhesset O. Enano, Jeannette I. Andrade, Julie M. Aurelio and DJ Yap