China willing to help bring home OFWs in Middle East
Credit to Author: Bernadette Tamayo| Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2020 16:18:58 +0000
CHINA is ready to help the Philippines bring home overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East to help them escape a full-blown war that could break out between the United States and Iran.
The Chinese Embassy has confirmed the information received by The Manila Times that Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian granted President Rodrigo Duterte’s request for assistance in repatriating OFWs if it becomes necessary.
“President [Rodrigo] Duterte requested assistance from China in evacuating Filipino workers from the Middle East in case of further deterioration of [the] situation,” said Liu Yiqun, chief of the Media and Public Relations Department of the Chinese Embassy to the Philippines.
“Ambassador Huang Xilian said that as a close friend of the Philippines, China will, as always, provide necessary assistance to the Philippines in times of need,” Liu said in an email to The Times.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin on Thursday said the mandatory evacuation of Filipino workers in Iraq would continue despite the apparent stand-down by the US and Iran.
The tension heightened after top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US drone attack in Baghdad, Iraq on January 3.
The Department of Foreign Affairs recently raised the alert level in Iraq to Level 4.
There are 1,640 Filipinos in Iraq.
On Friday Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Duterte’s request for assistance from China was only a “fallback.”
“[The request is a] fallback only should there be massive repatriation. If this happens, we [will] need a lot of aircraft and vessels,” Lorenzana told The Manila Times in a message.
The President assigned Lorenzana to head the special committee that will oversee the possible repatriation of OFWs. National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. is the vice chairman of the panel with the chiefs of Foreign Affairs, Labor, Transportation and Environment are its members.
Since 2016, the Duterte administration has embraced China as a close ally, despite the unresolved dispute in the South China (West Philippine) Sea.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the mandatory repatriation of Filipinos from Iraq would continue even after the government downgrades alert levels in the Middle East.
Speaking to reporters, he stressed the government’s “primary objective” right now was to get all OFWs out of Iraq and bring them to a safe haven.
Nograles said the government was eyeing Japan, Canada, China, Russia, Germany and other “friendly” countries as alternate job markets for Filipino workers who will be displaced by the conflict in the Middle East.
“Once they arrive in the Philippines, we will offer livelihood packages, Tesda (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) training. We will also offer redeployment if they want to work again overseas but no longer in the Middle East,” he continued.
“That’s why we have opened our communications with Japan, Canada, Germany, China and Russia to hopefully accommodate our OFWs. The priority will be those repatriated from the Middle East, from Iraq,” he added.
As a major airlift of Filipinos looms, three major airlines pledged to help in the repatriation effort.
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Director General Jim Sydiongco said Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific Air and AirAsia had “agreed to accommodate free of charge stranded Filipinos in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) or in any of its available Middle East flights, once the plans for the repatriation has been outlined.
AirAsia, on the other hand, offered free accommodation in its domestic flights to repatriated Filipinos that need to go back to their provinces.”
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian urged the government to help turn displaced and returning OFWs into local “entrepinoys.”
Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Economic Affairs committee, said the Department of Trade and Industry and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) should encourage and assist repatriated Filipinos to set up their own micro, small or medium-sized enterprises through OWWA’s OFW Enterprise Development and Loan Program.
The program entitles active and non-active OWWA members to up to P2 million worth of loans.
House Ways and Means committee Chairman Joey Salceda is optimistic the Middle East conflict will have little impact on the Philippine economy, but still pushed for contingency plans and long-term measures to address the situation.
In an aide memoire addressed to President Duterte, House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, which was shared to the media on Friday, Salceda said a “full-scale regional war between the United States and Iran remains unlikely, but the President is correct in requesting for contingency measures.”
“The House must be prepared to accommodate a request for a standby fund for repatriating overseas Filipino workers,” Salceda said, noting that the safety of OFWs is a priority.
A labor group, meanwhile, criticized the President for saying he wo9uld side with the US if Filipinos are harmed once violence erupts in the Middle East.
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino said the President’s statement was “premature, reckless and unilateral and only aggravates” the perilous situation of overseas Filipino workers in the entire Middle East.
“Such imprudent pronouncement shall place our overseas contract workers in peril and burden their families with increased anxiety,” said Luke Espiritu, president of the group.
WITH REPORTS FROM DEMPSEY REYES, CATHERINE S. VALENTE, BENJAMIN L. VERGARA, JAVIER JOE ISMAEL, DIVINA NOVA JOY DELA CRUZ AND FRANZ LEWIN EMBUDO