Evacuation plan for Pinoys ready

The government is ready to implement updated contingency plans to evacuate overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East in the event of a new attack by the United States against Iraq, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) assured the people that the government was working to prevent the possible mass deportation of about 200,000 undocumented OFWs from Italy and Israel.

Ople dismissed as "exaggerated" reports that about 200,000 undocumented OFWs in Italy and Israel could be expelled following moves to purge illegals in those countries as an aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

At the Senate, Senators Teresa Aquino-Oreta and Loren Legarda said the government should see to it that the disorganized and tragic repatriation of undocumented Filipinos in Sabah should not be repeated.

Ople presented the contingency plans for the evacuation of OFWs in the Middle East in a press briefing at Malacañang after presenting to President Arroyo and key leaders of Congress action plans and specific measures so far undertaken by the government in the mass deportation of undocumented Filipinos in Sabah.

He said the Philippine ambassadors in Italy and Israel have not reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) that those countries were supposed to crack down on illegals.

Describing fears of possible mass deportation of undocumented Filipinos in Italy and Israel as "exaggerated", Ople said the Philippines does not expect any deportation of Filipinos from these two countries.

He said the government has contingency plans for Middle East, which was being reviewed daily. "So this is the kind of contingency plans that we have and they will also apply to deportations of illegals if that occurs. We will not be caught flatfooted if there are new emergencies in that part of the world," he said.

On Thursday, Sto. Tomas said many countries have launched a massive crackdown against illegal aliens, a move that could affect at least 130,000 undocumented Filipinos in Italy and 30,000 in Israel.

"So the moral is do not be an illegal worker anywhere. It’s better to be here in the Philippines where although you have no high salary, you will not be abused and nobody can tell ‘You have no documents, come with me in prisons right now!," Ople wisecracked and laughed.

Ople expressed more concern on the need for the government to be prepared at all times to set into motion the contingency plans for evacuating OFWs amid the looming armed conflict in the Middle East.

He admitted that he was not comforted by the "assurances" of US Ambassador to the Philippines Francis Ricciardone that such anti-terror war against Iraq was far from the horizon.

"Yes, if Americans attack Iraq in spite of assurances from US Ambassador Ricciardone that it is not about to happen, but if Vice President (Dick) Cheney and Secretary (Donald) Rumsfeld and President (George W.) Bush would really like to attack, they will not telegraph their punch to the ambassador to Manila or their ambassadors in some other global posts," Ople said.

"We are prepared for that contingency. We know the numbers of each Filipinos in each countries. We know where to put them in terms of a holding area, if there is a sudden eruption of war there in the Middle East," he said.

Ople said the DOLE contingency plans for the Philippine embassies in the Middle East follow the evacuation routes for the OFWs: For those in Israel and Lebanon, they will be transported "immediately and quickly" to Cyprus; those in Iraq and Kuwait, as in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, will be "immediately moved" to Amman, Jordan because of the "safety of the place;" in Saudia Arabia, the OFWs would be relocated to be part of the kingdom which is beyond the scud missiles from Iraq.

"These missiles were unable to travel beyond Riyadh in 1991 (during the Persian Gulf War). But Saddam Hussein has been improving his arsenals, I understand has acquired the missile from Korea which has a range of 3,000 kilometers," Ople said.

"Riyadh and Jeddah are no longer safe relocation areas. They (OFWs) may have to move farther back in order to escape the missiles of Saddam Hussein," he said.

Amnesty in Italy

Meanwhile, Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said that Philippine Embassy and labor officials in Italy were conducting an information campaign to lure undocumented Filipino workers to apply for "regularization."

"We are not worried about our workers in Italy because there is an on-going regularization program so we are undertaking a campaign to convince our workers to avail of the program," Sto. Tomas said.

She said that under the "regularization" program, foreign workers - including Filipinos working as domestic helpers – could avail of the program by just submitting a work permit.

Under an Italian law to enforced soon, a foreign worker who is unable to secure a work permit could be deported, be imprison for three months and fined euro 5,000.

As to the undocumented workers in Israel, Sto. Tomas said officials from concerned agencies were set to meet soon to draft measures addressing their concerns.

"There is no firm measure yet but we are looking into the possible regularization of workers there," Sto. Tomas said, although she admitted that at the moment there was no existing amnesty program in Israel.

Meanwhile, Migrante International executive committee officer Maita Gomez told The STAR that they have received information that aside from Israel and Italy, a crackdown against illegals in Macau and in South Korea were expected to be imposed. An estimated 20,000 undocumented OFWs are in Macau.

"We have long warned the government of the possible adverse effect of the US war against terrorism on overseas deployment and as we can see, the deportation in Malaysia is just one of the manifestations," said Migrante executive officer Maita Santiago.

She said they have also received reports that most of the OFWs in Italy were very concerned on the impending implementation of a new law that would affect undocumented workers.

Most of the OFWs in Italy entered the country using a tourist visa. They may be able to renew their passports in the Philippine Embassy, but they could not secure working permits due to strict labor laws.

Santiago said the government should come out with long-term solution to the problem of illegal recruitment instead of providing assistance when the workers have been repatriated back in the country.

Oreta said that instead of stop-gap measures, the government should put in place contingency measures not just for Italy and Israel, but also in other countries hosting large numbers of undocumented Filipinos.

"What we have feared long ago, now looms before us. The global economic slump and the paranoia triggered by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the US had forced governments hosting OFWs to flush out illegal workers and send them home," Oreta said.

Legarda, on the other hand, urged DOLE to suspend the deployment of workers in Malaysia in the face of reports that Filipino deportees were maltreated while in detention.

The Commission of Filipinos Overseas estimated that there were about 7.4 million Filipinos are overseas, of the figure 2.7 million were permanent residents, 3 million are OFWs, while 1.6 were undocumented. — Marichu Villanueva, Mayen Jaymalin, Sammy Santos