Away from war: Gov’t-set flights bring Pinoys home
The government on Saturday flew 442 Filipinos—about half of them migrant workers—out of the Middle East, where more than a week of bombardments of Iran by Israel and the United States and retaliatory strikes by Tehran have killed more than 2,100 people.
More than 700 Filipinos who sought assistance to leave the troubled region have returned to the Philippines since the US-Israel war with Iran ignited on Feb. 28 with no signs of letting up.
Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac shared a video of himself with the latest batch of repatriates, seven of whom were children, aboard the flight that landed at Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.
“We have landed. 442 Filipinos from the UAE on the PHL Government-chartered B747-400 flight as directed by President Bongbong Marcos are home,” he said in a post on Facebook.
Caregiver’s body arrives
The flight came from Fujairah, one of the seven emirates comprising the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
The remains of Filipino caregiver Mary Ann de Vera arrived from Israel before dawn on Saturday on a separate flight. De Vera was killed by shrapnel from an Iranian missile on Feb. 28 as she was assisting an elderly woman get into a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv.
Oren Marmorstein, a spokesperson for Israel’s foreign ministry, earlier said that the Iranian regime’s ballistic missiles “murdered” the 32-year-old caregiver, who had worked in Israel since 2019.
Her husband, Bernie Lavarias, accompanied her body home after meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who assured him of financial assistance, including a monthly stipend, through the state’s national insurance system.
The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said 224 of the 442 who arrived later on the chartered flight were overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and tourists stranded in the region when the war began with massive bombardments of Iran, including its capital, Tehran.
They were welcomed by various government agencies, such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
Saturday’s repatriation followed the return of 34 OFWs from Dubai on March 6, and 299 Filipinos who arrived a day earlier.
According to Owwa Administrator Patricia Yvonne Caunan, 1,189 OFWs are seeking repatriation from the Middle East as of March 4. They include 278 from Bahrain, 246 from Abu Dhabi, 231 from Dubai, 173 from Qatar, 62 from Kuwait, 46 from Israel and five from Lebanon.
The number is relatively small, considering that there are more than 2 million Filipinos in just five countries in the troubled region—975,000 in UAE, 813,000 in Saudi Arabia, 250,000 in Qatar, 31,000 in Israel and about 800 in Iran—according to DFA figures.
‘Distressed’
Owwa said 340 OFWs from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will arrive on Sunday on the second government-chartered plane.
Acting Secretary Dave Gomez of the Presidential Communications Office earlier said a Philippine Airlines flight was expected to land before 7 a.m. at Naia.
Caunan said on top of those stranded due to flight disruptions, majority of the OFWs on board are tagged as “distressed.” She said 16 of them had travelled to Saudi Arabia from Bahrain.
She said the government will assist those who would be returning to their home provinces.
Both commercial and chartered flights were being organized for another 400 OFWs next week.
The preparations for their return home include visa assistance, ticket purchases, bus rentals and arrangements for pick ups on the way to the airport.
Caunan said this was the “core” of the government’s repatriation plans.
De Vera, the caregiver, was a native of Pangasinan where her remains would be transferred from Manila.
The Philippine Embassy organized a prayer vigil for De Vera on Thursday presided by His Beatitude Pierbattista Cardinal Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and the highest Catholic prelate in the Holy Land.
“In the face of such terror, our hearts may scream. But as followers of Christ, we are called to a different path—the path of forgiveness, mercy, and love that is life-giving—not death-dealing,” the embassy quoted Pizzaballa as saying during the memorial service.
“The greatest tribute we can pay to our departed sister is not hatred, but a renewed commitment to being instruments of God’s peace,” Pizzaballa added.
The bombardments and missile strikes also spread to other countries in the Middle East that host US military bases.
The Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera recorded 2,192 people killed across the region as of March 13—1,444 in Iran, 697 in Lebanon, 15 in Israel, 27 in Iraq, 6 in Kuwait, 2 in Bahrain, 2 in Saudi Arabia, 6 in UAE, and 3 in Oman. Over 18,500 were wounded, it said.
The New York Times reported that the US military suffered at least 13 dead and about 140 wounded. —WITH REPORTS FROM PNA AND INQUIRER RESEARCH
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