MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino engineer taken by a group of rebels in Libya on Monday has escaped from his captors and is now safe, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.
DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said they were able to get in touch with the wife of the Filipino engineer who had gone missing.
“He was able to get out from the group of rebels and is now safe and well in Tripoli,” Hernandez said.
He said the engineer’s wife asked the DFA not to disclose his identity for privacy reasons.
Foreign Undersecretary Rafael Seguis earlier reported that a group of men who appeared to be rebels forcibly entered and ransacked a housing unit in Tripoli shared by Filipinos and other foreign workers employed by a British-owned engineering company. Seguis said one Filipino engineer went missing after the incident.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario instructed Seguis to proceed to Tripoli last Aug. 12 to convince the remaining Filipinos in the country to avail of the repatriation being arranged by the embassy.
He also visited neighboring towns and hospitals where Filipinos were employed to arrange their repatriation.
Seguis also reported that armed men claiming to be rebels took at gun point vehicles owned by the United Nations World Health Organization (UN WHO) parked outside the Philippine embassy in Tripoli.
Also taken by armed men were two vehicles of the Philippine Labor Office-Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
‘Imminent end’
The Philippines, meanwhile, welcomed yesterday “the imminent resolution of the conflict in Libya” as Libyan diplomats in Manila cut ties with the embattled regime of Moammar Gadhafi and declared their support for the rebels’ Transitional National Council.
“The Philippines supports a peaceful transition in Libya in order for normalcy to return to this country, and looks forward to working with the Libyan people in pursuing peace and stability,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a statement.
DFA’s Hernandez said in Malacañang that the Libyan rebels who had already overrun Gadhafi’s compound in Tripoli assured the Philippines of safe passage for Filipino workers leaving the country.
“We are assessing the security situation. Representatives from rebel groups have already visited the embassy in Tripoli and assured a safe corridor for the passage of OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) to port of Tripoli,” Hernandez said.
He said they were firming up plans and making final arrangements for the repatriation of Filipinos by sea.
Once everything is set, Hernandez said 91 Filipinos would be on board.
Lacierda, in a statement, also thanked the Libyan people for keeping Filipinos and their families in Libya safe.
He also said the Philippines is grateful for the hospitality extended to the Filipinos throughout the conflict, including the medical workers who have chosen to remain in order to continue providing emergency humanitarian assistance to all parties in the conflict.
Libyan officials have also formally informed the DFA in a note verbale on Monday that their embassy “is no longer representing the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya” of Gadhafi “but the Libyan Transitional National Council.”
Malacañang also said it has mobilized rapid response teams (RRT) to assist Filipinos caught in hostilities in Libya and Syria.
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said in a statement that the RRTs were trained and prepared to address developments in crisis-affected countries with significant OFW populations.
“RRTs were deployed to Syria and Libya on Aug. 13, and the team in Syria has already reported that they have validated the contingency plans for OFWs based in Syria,” Ochoa said.
“The RRT assigned to Libya, on the other hand, is at the Libya-Tunisia border. It is closely monitoring developments in the area and is ready to assist OFWS that leave Libya via that route,” Ochoa added. Ochoa also chairs the Overseas Preparedness and Response Team (OPRT).
“We did not want to wait for the next crisis to occur before acting so we formed and trained the RRTs in anticipation of these developments in the Middle East. These teams were trained last May and have been ready for deployment to crisis-affected countries in the Middle East since June of this year,” Ochoa said.
The RRTs are tasked to verify and validate contingency plans in crisis-affected areas, familiarize themselves with actual conditions on the ground and augment efforts and personnel of the DFA in countries where there are political upheavals.
The RRTs, composed of select personnel from the DFA, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, report directly to the OPRT.
The OPRT was established through Executive Order 34 signed by President Aquino on April 6, to deal with the evacuation of thousands of Filipino workers in the Middle East at the height of the Iraq crisis.
It has replaced the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee formed in 2002. Reacting to developments in Libya, Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos said yesterday she is praying for a peaceful resolution of the civil war in the North African nation.
“It is my fervent hope that a peaceful and humane solution is achieved in the ‘Middle East problem’,” Marcos said in a statement.
“Based on the Koran, Islam is peace, let us all pray for world peace,” she said.
She said that 35 years ago, “the Philippines signed the Tripoli Peace Agreement with 29 Moslem countries. The Islamic Conference Group then headed by Col. Moammar Gadhafi.”
Marcos visited Libya in 1976 on behalf of the regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to seek Ghadafi’s help in solving the Muslim rebellion in Mindanao.
Not ready to leave
With the turn of events in Libya, most of the Filipino workers in the strife-torn country are reluctant to leave because they are still awaiting the release of their gratuity pay, Philippine labor attaché Nasser Mustafa said yesterday.
Mustafa said many of the Filipinos in Libya are retiring soon and thus are entitled to receive gratuity pay ranging from $20,000 to $30,000.
“Many of our OFWs have been working here in Libya for 10 to 20 years and just awaiting their retirement, that is why they are reluctant to return home because they would not be able to get the gratuity pay to be given upon their retirement,” Mustafa explained.
“Our workers are saying that the gratuity pay they would be getting upon their retirement would be a big help to their families. They also fear that they would end up jobless when they return home,” Mustafa added. He also stressed the Filipinos in Libya are safe.
Of the estimated 1,700 OFWs in the strife-torn North African nation, more than 90 have expressed willingness to be repatriated.
Meanwhile, a Roman Catholic priest based in Tripoli advised OFWs who have left Libya not to return yet.
“Those OFWs who have gone home to the Philippines should not return to Libya because the situation is still in chaos,” Fr. Amado Baranquel, parish priest of San Francisco Parish in Tripoli, said in an interview over the Church-run Radio Veritas.
“It is just that there has been a lot of gunfire and the sounds of fighting and gunfire are horrifying,” he said.
But he called on loved ones and relatives of Libya-based workers not to worry because they are safe. He said they had not left their homes for days because of the shooting and explosions outside.
“So it is very dangerous to go out but as of now there is a lot of firing especially from the morning till the afternoon, there is a celebratory firing,” he said.
“The rebels really are now almost in control but we cannot say that it’s full (control) because there are still sporadic resistance from the loyalists,” Fr. Baranquel added.
He said Filipino nurses have also been very busy assisting doctors and attending to the wounded.
He also praised Ambassador Alejandrino Vicente for actively preparing the mandatory repatriation of OFWs.
There were originally 26,000 OFWs in Libya, but many have already returned home.
Migrante, for its part, called on the government to help and immediately repatriate the OFWs in Syria, particularly those staying in Homs.
Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said they had received calls from three OFWs in Homs wanting to leave Syria immediately.
Monterona said the OFWs called the Philippine embassy, but were told to just stay put.
Philippine officials have assured the OFWs of immediate repatriation as soon as they secure exit clearances from their employers. With Aurea Calica, Delon Porcalla, Paolo Romero, Evelyn Macairan, Mayen Jaymalin