Israel promised to allow Pinoys to leave Gaza – President Marcos

MANILA, Philippines — Israel authorities have agreed to allow Filipinos in Gaza to leave the besieged territory through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt, President Marcos said yesterday.

Speaking to reporters at Malacañang, Marcos said Filipinos would be able to leave Gaza by Friday or Saturday, but admitted that certain “complications” could affect their repatriation.

Marcos, citing information from Israeli Ambassador Ilan Fluss, said Israel Foreign Minister Eli Cohen made the commitment to Philippine Ambassador Junie Laylo during a meeting on Thursday.

“They have a commitment to allow the Filipinos to (cross to Egypt) by today or tomorrow. That is what they promised us. Saturday at the latest,” the President said.

The Rafah crossing is controlled by Egypt. It is the only border exit in Gaza not controlled by Israel. It was recognized in the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

Personnel from the Philippine embassy in Cairo are waiting for Filipino repatriates from Gaza at the Rafah crossing, Marcos said.

“They have been waiting for a long time at the crossing, the Rafah crossing. And they are ready when the time comes for the Filipinos to cross and be taken and sent home,” the President said.

Marcos said complicating the situation was the reluctance of Filipinos with Palestinian spouses to leave the war-ton enclave, now surrounded by Israel troops preparing for ground attack.

“Of course, they don’t want to leave their (Palestinian) husbands, they don’t want to leave their children. So, these are the problems that we are facing,” Marcos said.

He said the Philippines has also offered assistance to Thais, Vietnamese and other nationals from Southeast Asian countries stranded at the crossing and wanting to get out of Gaza.

“And it looks like we are the ones there first because the presence of Filipinos in the area is much higher than the others. So that is the latest news that I received today, early this (Friday) morning from our Secretary of the DFA,” Marcos said, referring to Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo.

“And I hope this will happen so we can repatriate all those who want to leave and bring them back home to safety,” the President said partly in Filipino. 

Only Filipinos

At a briefing, Fluss said Israel’s commitment is only to Filipinos and not to their Palestinian spouses.

“We’re talking only about Filipinos. And we said that we will facilitate their exit today and tomorrow,” he told reporters at an online briefing yesterday.

“And from our side, we’ll do our best to facilitate the safe exits of the Filipinos and we do our efforts that it will happen today or tomorrow,” he stressed.

“We will do everything from our part in order to facilitate the safe exits of the Filipinos that are in Gaza,” he reiterated.

“We have to remember that we are in a war. There are also other players in this complicated situation such as the UN, such as Egypt,” he said.

“Certainly from the Israeli point of view, we will do everything we can in order to facilitate the safe exit of the Filipinos from Gaza,” Fluss maintained, noting that Israel is also taking steps to safeguard Filipinos living in Israel, “same as we do to our own citizens.”

As the situation in the Middle East becomes more volatile, House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan said Marcos should now appoint a permanent Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) secretary, a post that became vacant following the death of secretary Susan “Toots” Ople on Aug. 22.

Currrently, Undersecretary Hans Leo Cacdac leads the department as officer-in-charge.

Meanwhile, six more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Lebanon arrived yesterday morning at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 on board Emirates Airlines flight EK 336.

DMW’s Cacdac, OWWA administrator Arnel Ignacio and Kabayan Partylist representative welcomed the six OFWs. Last week, four Filipino workers arrived from Lebanon. Cacdac said 33 more OFWs also wished to be repatriated from Lebanon. A certain Clarita from Echague, Isabela said she decided to leave her employer of 23 years as tension arising from the Israeli-Hamas war has become more palpable in Lebanon. “The situation there has gone worse. I felt I might get stuck if war between Israel and Lebanon erupts again,” she said in Filipino.

The DMW said two more batches of OFWs from Israel are scheduled to come home next week.

Cacdac revealed that the fifth batch of 23 OFWs and the sixth batch of 27 more are set to arrive from Israel in two separate flights on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

He said 119 OFWs in Israel have been brought home already.

According to the DMW, a total of 178 OFWs in Israel have requested for repatriation.                     

“There is a big chance that they can still go back to Israel. For now, let us give the OFWs the chance for reunification with their respective families,” he said.

The DMW said there are around 30,000 OFWs based in Israel. — Helen Flores, Rhodina Villanueva, Sheila Crisostomo, Gilbert Bayoran, Rudy Santos