Repatriation. . .

Environment Secretary and Special Envoy to the Middle East Roy A. Cimatu said the repatriation of Filipinos, especially in Iraq must be done quickly while the Baghdad International Airport—where a January 3 air strike by US forces killed an Iranian general and sparked the crisis—remains open. This, as Iran, in an act of retaliation, fired missiles on two US facilities in Iraq early Wednesday, lending urgency to Philippine efforts to move out Filipinos, thousands of whom are known to work for American bases.

Should the airport in Baghdad be closed, traveling by land, possibly by bus arranged by the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad, will be risky, Cimatu said.

There are also plans by the Department of National Defense (DND) to evacuate Filipinos by sea, but he said this is only to move them to safer grounds where they will be transported to the nearest airport for flights to the Philippines. The nearest possible pick-up point using a seacraft is in the Persian Gulf, he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. reported that no Filipinos were killed or were hurt in the missile attack by Tehran, but Cimatu said it is best that Filipinos in Baghdad report to the Philippine Embassy and enlist themselves for repatriation. “Whether they have a passport or not, whether they have a visa or not, the DFA will be ready to issue travel documents,” he said.

“So far, US said no Filipinos found to have been hurt. But search and damage assessment not complete,” Locsin said on his Twitter account, citing information from the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Reports quoting the Pentagon said “more than a dozen missiles” were launched from Iran hitting the Al Asad and Erbil military bases in Iraq.

Cimatu is worried the US will strike anew after Iran’s retaliatory missile attack, eventually putting a lot of people at risk. By various estimates, there are anywhere from over 1,000 to 6,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Iraq. According to the official count from the Philippine Embassy in Iraq, there are around 1,190 documented and 450 undocumented Filipinos in Iraq.

He said the government will ensure the safety and security of Filipinos who will be moved out of Baghdad and other areas in Iraq, citing past experience. Cimatu, as newly retired Armed Forces chief of staff, was tapped in late 2002 by then-President Arroyo as special envoy to the Middle East, to coordinate interagency efforts to move OFWs to safety with the imminent US invasion of Iraq.

In the current mission, Cimatu said, “We made it clear [to Iran] that Filipinos are there to work for their families back home and are not part of the war.”

Despite the fact that the Philippines is a known US ally, the Filipinos who will be moved out of Iraq and Iran are civilians and noncombatants who “are there to work for a living,” Cimatu stressed.

The Philippine committee sent by Duterte to the Middle East also has one mission, which is to ensure the safe evacuation and repatriation of Filipinos in conflict areas in the Middle East, he said.

Also, he said the Philippine Embassies are already coordinating the exit of Filipinos in both Iraq and Iran, and other Mideast countries.

IOM help

CIMATU hopes the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a nongovernment organization that helps in the migration of workers, will provide assistance, including the identification of a humanitarian or peace corridor where the safe passage of Filipinos is ensured.

He recalled how, in 2003, “we requested a humanitarian corridor. When the humanitarian corridor is identified, even when there is conflict there, Filipinos will be safe [in this humanitarian corridor], ”citing his experience in moving Filipinos from Beirut to Syria. “We put the Philippine flag there,” he said.

According to Cimatu, the Philippine Embassies in Iraq and Iran “have contingency plans and eventual repatriation plans in place.”

No one-size-fits-all

ACCORDING to Cimatu, there is a Middle East plan for each country.

“Each country has a different degree or level of alert and also they have different data [on the] number of Filipino workers. There are also different scenarios,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cimatu said the Philippine government will continue the repatriation of Filipinos in Lebanon.

“There is an ongoing repatriation there even before this tension. This is now being undertaken by DOLE. This will continue but I gave them a warning that this country might again be involved,” he said.

Sen. Joel Villanueva, chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development, appealed to affected OFWs to heed the appeal for them to temporarily relocate to safer grounds.

Villanueva reminded them that Philippine Embassy officials based in the strife-torn region have already raised Alert Level 4.

The senator pleaded for affected OFWs to heed the warnings for the sake of their families.

Amid the growing tension in the Middle East, the DFA on Tuesday convened an Interagency Command Conference after President Duterte ordered government agencies to draw up emergency plans for Filipinos in the region.

Repatriation begins— Lorenzana

DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the repatriation of Filipinos from Iran and Iraq has begun even as the military mobilized troops and assets for deployment to the Middle East, both to protect Filipinos and help bring them home.

“It started, actually today,” said Lorenzana of the repatriation efforts amid reports that Iran has made good its vow of avenging the death of General Qassem Soleimani by firing missiles into two bases hosting American troops in Iraq.

“We have a ship that is going to be delivered by a French company for the Coast Guard. It so happened that the ship is steaming toward the Philippines. The other day, it was in Malta, maybe tomorrow [today], it would already be in Jeddah, [Saudi Arabia],” the defense chief said on Wednesday.

“We will hold them there for a while so that we could use it in shuttling from Iran or Iraq to Qatar. It’s just like that until we assemble them there, and then from there, we can, maybe, charter a plane or charter ships to bring them home,” he added.

Lorenzana said the government will be very careful to ensure it is not seen as getting involved in the tension between the United States and Iran.

The military is preparing to send at least two battalions of soldiers along with two C-130s and C-295 planes to the Middle East to help ferry Filipinos back home.

Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Felimon Santos said the two battalions will come from the Marines and the Army, and will be based in the safest and nearest staging areas like Saudi Arabia or Qatar.

“What we are waiting for is their go signal to proceed. We have to place our forces there in strategic places so that it would be near just in case [things] worsen,” he said.

“The two battalions will not be there to engage anybody in combat, but to facilitate or help assist in the repatriation of overseas Filipino workers, especially in Iraq. They are not going there to fight,” he said.

Lorenzana said the military is preparing the troops while Locsin coordinates with countries and prepares the documents and clearances for the deployment of Filipino soldiers and logistics like planes and vessels.

“Where will they land, where will they dock? Those refurbishments, refueling, supplies. All those would have to be arranged,” Lorenzana said.

Lorenzana said that while the repatriation would focus in Iran and Iraq, all Filipinos at risk in the Middle East, especially Libya, who want to go home will be repatriated.

“So our focus, our first targets are those in Iran, Iraq and Libya,” he said.

The defense secretary said they plan to send to the Mideast the two landing dock ships bought from Indonesia, BRP Tarlac and BRP Davao del Sur, each capable of carrying at least 500 people, as soon as Locsin is done with their docking clearances.

If military planes and ships are not enough to ferry Filipinos back home, Lorenzana said they will charter commercial planes and cruise ships as ordered by Duterte.

While Santos did not discount the possibility that soldiers deployed in the Middle East might be exposed to attacks, he said this is very minimal.

“There’s a risk, but very little because I think Iran will not, would not like to involve other countries just like what they did this morning, their target is a military base,” the chief of staff said. The soldiers are also ready, though, to rescue Filipinos who might be trapped, if the situation escalates, Santos added.

Coast Guard ready

THE Philippine Coast Guard said it is ready to repatriate OFWs in the Middle East.

In a statement, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) said the BRP Gabriela Silang, the new offshore patrol vessel it ordered from France, is now docked at a port in Malta.

It was initially scheduled for arrival in Manila on February 10, but was ordered by the government to prepare for possible extraction of Filipinos in the Gulf area.

The vessel will sail to either Oman or Dubai “to ensure the safety and security of OFWs through ferry missions.”

“In case of conflict, OFWs will be brought to safer ports where they may be airlifted, as the need arises,”the Coast Guard said.

BRP Gabriela Silang, it noted, is considered to be the “largest and most advanced aluminum hull offshore patrol vessel in the world.” With reports from Recto Mercene, Rene Acosta, Lorenz S. Marasigan, Butch Fernandez and PNA