Inutile in Lebanon

INQ7.net
Last updated 03:58am (Mla time) 07/20/2006


AS AN overseas Filipino worker (OFW), I am horrified by the slow and unclear response of the Philippine government to the plight of 30,000 Filipino workers who are helplessly trapped in Lebanon.

The government, as expected, has again made the excuse of lack of funds. Without even first instituting its own assistance mechanisms, it has already resorted to outside support, such as that of the Vatican to assist OFWs in Lebanon. The government's so-called "innovative" ways to secure the lives of its citizens in Lebanon include seeking refuge in Catholic churches, as if those infrastructures are immune from bombings.

Other governments, even before the war broke, have had clear evacuation plans for their citizens. The Philippines, which has the second-highest population of citizens in Lebanon (Canada has the highest at 40,000 citizens), did not even have foresight for possible evacuation as the war was looming.

Estrelita Hizon, who is president of a recruiters' group and who sits comfortably on the board of trustees of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), even declared, irresponsibly, that what was happening in Lebanon was not that bad and scary, even if the emergency alert level was already at No. 3.

OFWs provide billions of dollars in remittances to the Philippines ($11.5 billion last year, according to an Inquirer report on July 17, 2006) -- and there is not a single cent allocated for overseas Filipinos in a crisis? Where is the emergency repatriation fund of P100 million that should have been allotted for such cases as directed by the Magna Carta
for OFWs? Where are the billions of pesos in OWWA funds?

Remittances from OFWs keep the Philippine economy afloat and the least that this inutile government can do is to ensure that its "milking cows" are out of danger so the inflows of remittances won't be disrupted. According to Presidential Spokesman Mike Defensor and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, it would cost $300-$400 to ferry each person out by ship, or $12 million for all the 30,000 Filipinos in Lebanon. What is $12 million compared with the billions of dollars that we OFWs bring into the country? What is $12 million if that is the cost of our lives?

With the help of their responsible governments, most foreign nationals have fled Lebanon already, in one of the biggest mass evacuations since World War II. Meanwhile, the Philippine government is still debating how to repatriate OFWs, some of whom were abandoned by their employers who fled Lebanon.

There have been reports of Filipino evacuees in one church in Lebanon who are packed like sardines. Meanwhile, Defensor and Gonzalez said the "current situation showed that the Filipinos were still safe."

What a talent for inutility.

-- GILBERT SAPE, 12-2 Block B Greenlane Heights, Penang, Malaysia (via e-mail)