President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. directed the relevant government agencies on Thursday to prepare for the reintegration of the Filipinos who will be repatriated from Israel for them to have source of livelihood when they arrived in the country, a foreign affairs official said.
“The President also directed relevant agencies to prepare for, of course, the reintegration of the Filipinos when they come home which is a standard every time we repatriate Filipinos. And, of course, that includes the receipt of ayuda, financial assistance,” Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega said in Palace press briefing.
Among the assistance that could be given to the repatriates are action fund from the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) through its partnership with Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will also extend Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) on top of education assistance to be given to the children of OFWs.
According to De Vega, the Philippine embassy in Cairo is sending a team to the Gaza border to facilitate the repatriation of Filipinos once a humanitarian corridor is declared with the help of the United Nations.
“We are providing them funding to be able to rent transportation to bring them from the border to Cairo and to fly them to the Philippines, itong 92,” he said, adding the country’s embassy in Amman, Jordan, is also in touch with the Filipinos in Gaza.
The President also directed the Department of Foreign Affairs to contact countries and also through the embassies in Manila to provide critical assistance in looking for Filipinos who remain unaccounted for and to help them get out of Gaza. De Vega said there are about 131 Filipinos in Gaza. Some are Filipino women married to Palestinians living with their children and even grandchildren, practically of Arab ethnicity.
