THE Philippine government made an assurance on Saturday that it has contingency plans to effectively respond to emergencies and crisis situation in case the Israel-Hamas war widens into a regional conflict.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega told a news forum in Quezon City that the Philippine embassies in Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon have contingency plans should the current conflict spreads to other parts of the Middle East.
“Nais namin ipabatid sa inyo na mayroong contingency plans iyong mga embahada natin sa Israel at sa Lebanon pati sa Jordan. Nakikipag-ugnayan kami sa kanila. Matagal nang may contingency plans itong mga embahada kasi palagi namang volatile ang situation doon [Middle East],” De Vega said during the forum.
“Well, naalala ninyo kagabi may ipinahayag iyong mga Hezbollah na sinisisi nila iyong Amerika, iyong Estados Unidos sa gulo pero wala silang sinabi na gigiyerahin nila ang Israel – war is never positive but we have to take it that there’s some welcome news or some positive news that so far we have not seen an escalation,” he said.
According to De Vega, they received information from Filipinos in Israel that the situation in the Middle Eastern country appears to have started normalizing particularly in most Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv.
Early in the forum, De Vega made an announcement that 20 Filipinos will leave Gaza on Sunday after signing up to leave the war-torn enclave for Egypt through the Rafah Crossing.
In the next day or in the next two days, De Vega said they expect a batch of 23 individuals to also leave Gaza. So far, only 43 of the Filipinos have signified that they definitely want to leave the war-torn city. A lot of Filipinos do not want to leave their Palestinian spouses or parents, he said.
There are also Filipinos returning from Lebanon, De Vega said.
Israeli forces are trading fire at its border with Lebanon-based Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and militant group.
“Sa Lebanon, mamaya mismo may darating anim pero ano sila mga asawa ng Lebanese at saka itsi-check ko po. May tentative schedule sa Wednesday, tentative pa lang na otso pa, eight,” De Vega said.
