DFA advises vs travel to Libya, Yemen, Bahrain

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) issued yesterday a travel advisory warning Filipinos not to travel to Libya, Bahrain and Yemen where anti-government protest actions have led to killings.

DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos, Jr. said mandatory evacuation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Libya, Bahrain and Yemen is not yet necessary but Filipinos were told to postpone non-essential and non-urgent travel to the three countries.

“Based on our assessment at this time we still do not need mandatory evacuation,” Conejos said.

Conejos said the Philippine government is ready to evacuate Filipinos if it becomes necessary.

Filipinos who are planning to travel to these countries were urged to defer their plans until the security situations have stabilized.

The Philippine embassies in Libya, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, which also covers Yemen, have been placed on heightened alert but diplomats assured the government that Filipinos in those countries are safe.

Filipino diplomats are also in constant contact with the OFWs there and have established 24-hour crisis monitoring teams.

There are around 31,000 Filipinos in Bahrain, 1,400 in Yemen and around 26,000 are in Libya as of June 2010.

The embassies have also advised Filipinos to be on alert when in public places or on major roads and to stay away from large crowds and demonstrations.

The embassy in Tripoli, Libya said the human resources manager of SNC Lavelin Company has assured diplomats that the 1,800 Filipino construction workers at an airport construction site in Benghazi City are safe within the work site, which has its own security force.

The worksite is some 19 kilometers from central Benghazi, where the protests are taking place.

SNC Lavelin said the Filipinos have accommodations and ample food and water.

The embassy said that the Thai, Indonesian, Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi embassies, which also have sizable populations in Libya, have not announced any evacuation at this time. The other foreign embassies are also on heightened alert.

Protesters clashed with Libyan security forces last Sunday and news reports said 173 people have been killed.

The embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia said members of the Filipino community in Yemen are safe and that transportation facilities and even shopping malls are still operating normally.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh offered to oversee a dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition to defuse the stand off with protesters.

The Philippine embassy in Manama, Bahrain had advised Filipinos to remain calm and avoid joining or going to places with protest actions. The embassy had also provided a telephone hotline for the OFWs.

The Management Association of the Philipppines (MAP) urged the Aquino Administration, particularly the Department of Energy and the Department of Labor and Employment, to take proactive steps in addressing the possible negative impact on large companies and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the rapid developments in the Middle East and North Africa.

“The MAP will be happy to work with the government and the private sector through a public-private partnership (PPP) in whatever energy preparedness strategies, plans and programs the government is developing for meeting the adverse impact of fast-increasing oil prices, probable disruptions in oil supply and possible unscheduled return of OFWs who are based in the affected countries,” Map said in a statement issued yesterday.

The Philippines must be prepared in case there will be a recurrence of the 1973 oil crisis, and should reduce dependence on fossil oil consumption, MAP said.

“Better prepared than sorry when the unwanted scenarios happen,” said the MAP.

Cimatu won’t be sent  back to Middle East

Malacañang will no longer send Special Envoy to the Middle East Roy Cimatu to strife-torn countries in the Middle East since the Philippine embassies are already attending to the needs of Filipinos there.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said that the decision was not tied with allegations that Cimatu pocketed P80 million in sendoff money when he retired as chief of staff of the Armed Forces.

President Aquino earlier vowed to make the military generals involved in corruption answer for their misdeeds.

Cimatu denied the allegations against him when he attended the investigation into the issue.

Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Carlos Cao Jr. reported that the agency, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and other concerned government agencies would review the possibility of deferring the deployment of OFWs to Bahrain, Libya and Yemen.

“We are currently in the evaluation and assessment period on the situation in the said Middle East countries and we are going to discuss the possibility of deferring the deployment of OFWs in our scheduled conference among labor attaches and other government agencies,” Cao said.

Cao added that the decision whether to defer deployment of workers would depend on developments in those countries.

He said the government is likely to adopt a similar strategy as that adopted in Egypt where the government initially deferred the deployment but immediately resumed the sending of workers as soon as the situation had improved. – With Aurea Calica, Mayen Jaymalin