Marcos: Get Filipinos out of Lebanon by all means

REPATRIATION UPDATE Skipping a part of the program at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit in Vientiane, President Marcos holds a meeting via Zoom with some Cabinet officials regarding the situation of Filipinos amid the escalating violence in Lebanon. —PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE PHOTO

VIENTIANE, Laos — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday ordered government agencies to “mobilize all resources” to move Filipinos in Lebanon out of harm’s way, after a series of Israeli airstrikes caused massive destruction in the southern part of the Middle Eastern country.

But the repatriation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from the strife-torn region remains voluntary, Mr. Marcos said during an urgent online call with Cabinet members, shortly after the opening ceremony of the 44th and 45th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summits in the capital of Laos.

The Philippine leader skipped his opening statement during the retreat session with other Asean leaders to rush to the video conference with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., National Security Adviser Eduardo Año and Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac.

READ: 182 Filipinos in Lebanon expected home soon

“We are now going to evacuate our people by whatever means—by air, or by sea,” Marcos told the officials.

“Just make all the preparations so that our assets are close by. If we need a ship, it must be near Beirut so that once the embassy gives us the clearance and they say that our people can go, we can immediately pull them out and they don’t have to wait too long in [dangerous] areas,” he added.

Exit clearances

Teodoro and Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Raymond Balatbat assured the President that repatriation would start once all necessary exit clearances were secured.

“We’re ready, willing, and able [to repatriate Filipinos] at any time. We’re just waiting for the diplomatic clearances of the expatriates to be processed out of Beirut,” Teodoro said.

In a chance interview, Speaker Martin Romualdez said the video conference “was just an urgent call to assess the situation.”

“There was growing tension in the Middle East and we have to secure our Filipinos there. We wanted to make the security arrangements and assure them that amidst the growing tensions, we secure our Filipinos in the region,” Romualdez told reporters.

Raised alert

The government has raised the alert in Lebanon from level 2 to level 3, prompting the government to begin repatriating Filipinos who wish to leave the country. Level 4 would mean mandatory repatriation.

Interviewed on state television, Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega said the situation in Lebanon did not yet call for mandatory repatriation because of the presence of a “stable government.”

“While we hear reports about the violence happening in Lebanon, we also know that there is still a working government there, and the attacks by Israel are against specific targets and not in the form of an invasion like what it did to Gaza,” he said during the “Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon” public briefing.

De Vega said OFWs in Lebanon were also opposed to the imposition of alert level 4, as most of them would rather stay in the country.

“In fact, out of the estimated 11,000 Filipinos, only about 500 or 600 have expressed their desire to come home. We have to understand that for many of them, Lebanon has become sort of a second home, even while they’re still proud to be Filipinos,” he said.

Only one airline

According to De Vega, the Department of Foreign Affairs has booked flights for 182 passengers with Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines—the only remaining carrier operating out of Beirut—who will start arriving in Manila in the coming weekend.

Flights to Manila may be scarce, but Middle East Airlines also flies to all neighboring cities in Qatar or the United Arab Emirates from where OFWs can take flights to the Philippines, De Vera said.

“So there’s a way to get out. So we’re calling on Israel that its actions should be under the principles of international law, including proportionality [and] avoiding civilian casualties,” he said.

Mobilizing resources

So far, the Philippine Embassy in Beirut has received 1,721 applications for repatriation, with 511 already flown back to the Philippines and another 171 ready to go.

From Israel, the Department of Migrant Workers and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration will be bringing home at least 162 distressed Filipinos, officials said.

The Philippine Embassy in Beirut is also mobilizing resources in anticipation of widespread conflict in the region.

Israel—emboldened by its near-flattening of the Gaza Strip and operational wins in Iran—expanded its invasion into Lebanon and is contemplating a response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1.

On Oct. 6, Israeli warplanes staged 30 overnight air raids in southern Beirut.

Marcos flew to the Laotian capital on Tuesday afternoon for the Asean summits. Sat down with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh for his first bilateral meeting at the summit, during which the two leaders agreed to explore “new areas of cooperation” between Manila and Hanoi.

Strategic partnership

“We have made a good deal of progress since our very first discussion and some of the engagements between our two countries. And I am very happy that we will be able to pursue that,” Marcos told the Vietnamese leader.

“And it also gives us the opportunity to explore new areas of cooperation and of partnership. So, thank you,” he added.

For his part, Chinh reaffirmed Vietnam’s “unwavering commitment” to the Philippines.

“I want to reaffirm that we always support the strategic partnership with the Philippines. I’m glad to note that the discussions that we began two years ago have been implemented effectively,” he said.

The Philippines and Vietnam previously signed several agreements, including on “incident prevention in the South China Sea” and “maritime cooperation” between their coast guards, in a bid to deescalate conflict in shared waters.

According to a report from Vietnam News, the two leaders agreed to continue to strengthen their maritime cooperation and promote the crafting of the long-overdue code of conduct for the resolution of conflict in the South China Sea.

Marcos and Chinh’s meeting came at a time of heightened tensions in the South China Sea, over which China has sweeping claims that were invalidated by an arbitral tribunal in 2016.—with a report from Melvin Gascon