MIGRANT WATCH

RP Urged to Condemn Lebanon Bombing, Secure OFWs

Some 30,000 OFWs are facing danger in Lebanon as Israeli forces intensify bombings targeting Hezbollah guerillas in Beirut.  Unlike her quick condemnation on North Korea’s missile test, Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has remained silent on the assault that has already killed some 50 civilians.

BY AUBREY MAKILAN
Bulatlat

Irma Tulauan, 30, has been working as a domestic helper in Lebanon since June last year. In less than a year, she told her mother Fely Gudasin, 55, over the phone that she wanted to go home to Tuguegarao City in Cagayan province (485 kms from Manila).

“Wala pang g’yera noon! Paano na kaya sila ngayon?” (There was still no war then. What will happen to them now?) asked the troubled mother after hearing radio reports that Israel has bombed the place of work of her daughter.

In danger

Migrante Sectoral Party (MSP) spokesperson Gary Martinez said Tulauan is just one of the 30,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Lebanon, mostly working as domestic helpers, whose lives have been put in danger after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered his army to intensify the offensive against Lebanon. Earlier, rockets fired from southern Lebanon hit Israel’s biggest city Haifa and killed three people. 

“We call on the Arroyo government to exhaust all means necessary to ensure the safety of our OFWs working in Lebanon,” said Martinez.

Martinez said that OFWs are concentrated on the southern part of Lebanon where the Hezbollah’s headquarters is also located and which has been the target of Israeli bombings. The group are worried that all major air and sea ports have been destroyed by the bombings. Although travel by land is still possible via Iraq and Syria, he said, traversing Iraq is as risky as staying in the conflict-stricken Lebanon.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has already issued a strict travel ban to Lebanon, and had advised Filipinos there “to remain where they are but prepare for immediate relocation.”

Martinez criticized the government’s silence over the bombing. He challenged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to immediately condemn the “barbaric Israeli aggression on the Lebanese people for the sake of our OFWs.”

MSP reported that Russia, Spain and France have already condemned Israel for the bombings.

“If she managed to quickly condemn North Korea’s missile testing just to please the United States, we can’t see any reason why she can’t do the same to Lebanon,” said Martinez.

Same sentiments

Like other distressed OFWs, Tulauan complains of low salary. Her mother told Bulatlat that her daughter only receives $150 although her contract states that her salary is $200 a month.

Gudasin said that her daughter reported over the phone in June that she was being locked up in the house whenever her employers leave.

Tulauan also sends “text” messages to her husband in the province saying she really wanted to go home but she does not have enough money to pay for her airfare. Her employers insisted that she finish her two-year contract, or else she would have to shoulder her own travel expenses, said Gudasin.

Since the bombing on Thursday, Gudasin became more attentive to radio reports, praying that her daughter would be safe from the bombs that have already killed 46 people in Beirut. Bulatlat

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