Navy, cruise ships may help evacuate OFWs in Middle East

MANILA, Philippines — The government might charter cruise ships to help evacuate overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) if hostilities break out in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana bared yesterday.

This is aside from the plan to send one of the Philippine Navy’s landing dock vessels, the BRP Davao del Sur LD-602, which is capable of carrying 2,800 tons of cargo and about 500 troops.

Lorenzana said chartering cruise ships to move OFWs out of conflict zones is one of the best options being considered so far.

Tension is currently mounting in the region following the US drone attack in Baghdad that resulted in the death of a top Iranian general together with the head of the Iran-backed paramilitary forces in Iraq last Friday.

“The Navy’s concept of support in the repatriation of affected OFWS in the Middle East (is) one landing dock and possibly escorted by one Del Pilar (class offshore patrol vessel),” said Lt. Commander Maria Christina Roxas, Navy spokesperson.

She added that the readiness to assist OFWs in the Middle East is in response to President Duterte’s order to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to make ready its air and naval assets for possible deployment.

Roxas stressed that BRP Davao del Sur’s seaworthiness and transport capabilities have already been tested in local naval operations at the height of disaster response in Mindanao and in foreign missions, referring to its visit to Vladivostok, Russia last year and in Hawaii in 2018.

One of the biggest ships in the Navy inventory, LD 602 cruises at a speed of 12 to 13 knots.

AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said military planning for a possible repatriation or evacuation of OFWs is crucial since it is not just a transport sortie.

“It is a humanitarian mission dedicated to take from harm’s way our fellow Filipinos and bring them to safety,” Arevalo stressed.