MANILA, October 7 ------ The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Saturday it is on alert for any new potential security threats in the Middle East ahead of the first anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel by militant group Hamas, which triggered the ongoing conflict in Gaza. “Either Israel will do something symbolic or the other side will do something symbolic,” said DFA Undersecretary Eduardo Vega during a media forum in Quezon City.
DFA Assistant Secretary Marlo Miranda also urged Filipinos in the region to remain vigilant and to always check with the Philippine embassy for the latest advisories. “The ambassadors and our colleagues in the Middle East, those affected countries… nagmamanman sila, tinitignan kung ano yung mga senyales na may puputok. Sa mga ganung pagkakataon, yung advisories pa rin ng mga embahada natin doon ang aasahan ng mga Pilipino,” added DFA Deputy Assistant Secretary Marlo Miranda. But De Vega believes Israel is able to protect itself, as well as the 30,000 Filipinos who live there, from possible attacks. “They even feel more safe in Israel because they have the defense mechanism necessary to repel all these missile attacks,” he said.
Meanwhile, more than 100 Filipinos are set to be repatriated from Lebanon in batches starting this October 11 until October 28 amid Israel’s continued bombardment. This includes the 15 Filipinos who were originally scheduled to be repatriated last September 26 but their commercial flight had been postponed twice now.
According to the DFA, it is prepared to help even undocumented Filipinos whose passports are being withheld by their employers. “Kung walang passport, we can always issue travel documents for them to go home,” said De Vega. But De Vega pointed out that majority of Filipinos in Lebanon still refuse to go home. “If they are saying, mananatili kami rito, we will respect that also because hindi pa naman naging giyera tulad ng Sudan o Ukraine. The situation on the ground is they continue to receive their salaries, they have their jobs,” he said.
The DFA is also not yet keen on declaring an Alert Level 4 in the country, which would trigger mandatory evacuation. “Israel has not conducted a full-scale ground assault like we’ve seen, for example, in ‘82 or 2006… Of course, we need prayers, na tulad ng analysis natin, hindi mag-eexplode ito,” said De Vega. De Vega also assured that all the Filipinos in parts of Southern Lebanon which are being targeted by Israel have already been evacuated.
The DFA said it is also weighing the calls of other OFWs in Lebanon not to raise the alert level out of fear that if they are forcibly evacuated, they will no longer be able to return to their jobs even after the conflict.
Source: news.abs-cbn.com
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