DFA moves to keep Pinoys in Gaza safe

PHNOM PENH – President Aquino has directed Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario to ensure the safety of Filipinos working and living in danger zones in Gaza strip and Israel, according to a Cabinet official.

“The President was also keeping tabs on the Israeli-Hamas situation through Secretary Del Rosario,” Secretary Sonny Coloma of the Presidential Communications Operations Office told Manila-based reporters covering the 21st Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit yesterday.

Coloma said that there are 100 Filipinos still trapped in Gaza while 41,000 are in Israel.

He said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has deployed “rapid response teams” and are “already on the move and know what to do in order to get the Filipinos out of harm’s way.”

“So the President, as he has always done whenever he is in an overseas engagement, makes sure that all of the other important issues are properly addressed and this is what he has done,” Coloma said.

Repatriations work within policies in accordance with the rapid response protocols.

Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, on the other hand, revealed that Philippine embassy staff in Tel Aviv have been calling on overseas Filipino workers for possible repatriation, but the problem is they still want to stay.