Filipina-Egyptian hit by stray bullet in Cairo

MANILA, Philippines - A teenage Filipina-Egyptian residing in Helwan, Cairo was hit in her right shoulder by a stray bullet that penetrated their apartment Thursday night, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

“She is now confined in a hospital where embassy personnel visited her to check on her condition and offer assistance,” DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said in a text message to reporters. 

The incident came as the DFA raised the crisis alert in Egypt to level 3 last Thursday due to the escalating civil unrest and security problem in the country. Egypt declared a month-long state of emergency, prompting the Philippine embassy in Cairo to raise the crisis alert level. 

Alert level 3 entails voluntary repatriation of Filipinos in Egypt, suspension of the deployment of new and vacationing workers and the return of Filipino spouses of Egyptian nationals, Islamic University students and their dependents.

The DFA has also advised Filipinos in Egypt to take precautions and comply with the Egyptian government’s orders. 

“We continue to advise our countrymen to exercise extra precaution and stay in their homes. If they need to go out, they should avoid places where protest actions are taking place, and to comply with the Egyptian government’s orders, especially the curfew,” Hernandez said. “If their homes are located near protest areas, they must stay away from windows.”

He also reiterated DFA’s advice to Filipinos to “defer all non-essential trips to Egypt until further notice.”

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario raised the alert level in Egypt as the risk exposure of Filipinos there increased with the incidents on Wednesday. The DFA chief visited Egypt to assess the situation and evaluate the contingency plans.

“We have 6,000 people throughout Egypt, about 4,800 in Cairo. At that time we were comfortable with the alert level being at level no. 2. But because of what had happened last night, it seems that the risk exposure to our people seems to have increased, so we decided to elevate the crisis level to three, which is essentially voluntary repatriation,” Del Rosario said in a chance interview at the Eid’l Fitr reception hosted by the DFA on Thursday night.

He also said the DFA can arrange for voluntary repatriation of Filipinos at government expense.  

“We are ready for those who may want to leave. I don’t know how far we are from mandatory, hopefully the situation improves,” he added.

POEA bans deployment to Egypt

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), meanwhile, imposed a total ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Egypt yesterday.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the POEA governing board, in an emergency meeting, approved a resolution suspending the deployment of new and rehired OFWs to Egypt.

“Considering the present circumstances, it is not safe for Filipinos to work in Egypt so that POEA imposed a total ban in the processing and deployment of all OFWs bound for Egypt,” Baldoz said. 

Budget increase for DOLE urged

OFW Family party-list Rep. Roy Señeres, meanwhile, urged the Aquino administration to realign and increase the proposed budget of the DOLE to help and protect the OFWs.

Señeres said the P499-million proposed budget for OFW operations, or 4.9 percent of the proposed budget of P10.224 billion for DOLE, constitutes a “pittance” for the more than 10 million OFWs who are scattered worldwide and have contributed at least $20 billion in foreign exchange earnings for the Philippine economy. 

Baldoz told lawmakers earlier this week that the proposed P2.3-trillion national budget allocates P10.224 billion for DOLE, of which P7.604 billion or 74 percent would go to regional operations, P2.121 billion or 21 percent to central operations, and P499 million to overseas operations.

The proposed budget for DOLE represents .63 percent of the proposed national budget for 2014, while DOLE’s budget for OFW operations is merely .000031 percent of the overall national budget, Señeres noted.  —  With Mayen Jaymalin, Paolo Romero