Martinez said that the government should have already learned its lessons from the Gulf War when it failed to repatriate thousands of OFWs from Kuwait.

Task Force Ligtas

For their part, Migrante is also helping the distressed OFWs in Lebanon thru Task Force Ligtas, which was formed even earlier than the government’s Oplan Sagip OFW sa Lebanon.

He said that after they have announced its formation and the hotline number 9114165 on the third day of the strike, calls and text messages from families of stranded OFWs in Lebanon started coming in.

“Nabuo ito dahil inutil ang gobyerno, wala silang naipakitang plano,” he said. “We took it upon ourselves na tayo na lang ang magtulungan.” (We formed the task force because the government was inutile, they don’t have any plan. We took it upon ourselves to help each other.)

Fely Gudasin, mother of OFW in Lebanon Irma Tulauan, became its spokesperson.

After OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque admitted he could not do anything for Tulauan’s repatriation since her contract is still active, Tulauan managed to escape her employer and run to the church.

The task force has been coordinating with the families of OFWs in Lebanon, gathering contact numbers and coordinating these with the OWWA.

OWWA funds

While many OFWs are suffering from the perils of war in Lebanon, officials at the Embassy in Lebanon, foreign affairs and OWWA squabble over evacuation funding.

The bickering was sparked after Ambassador to Lebanon Al Francis Bichara said on national television that they will stop the evacuation as they already lack funds.

In a news briefing in Malacañang, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr., said Bicharra “has enough money.”

Conejos said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released $150 million to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on July 20, with $150,000 of which disbursed to the Embassy in Lebanon to augment the embassy funds amounting to only $200,000.

Conejos said Bichara must be confused to think that they only have $150,000 funding.

All in all, there are almost $380,000 total funds in Beirut to be used for the evacuation purposes of OFWs in Lebanon.

According to Administrator Roque, OWWA had already spent some $1.5 million for the evacuation of 1,047 OFWs from Lebanon.

Aside from this, he said they are also paying the cost of maintaining the staging area in Damascus where OFWs stay up to 48 hours before flying home to Manila.

Meanwhile, Roque said that the P7.6 billion OWWA fund is still intact with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), invested in government securities in both the treasury bonds and treasury bills.

He added that aside from this, OWWA has about P200 million in cash deposited in the LBP as stand-by fund for the ongoing evacuation of OFWs in Lebanon.

But Migrante International has criticized this, saying the banks rake in a one percent management fee.

OFWs plight

If the OWWA fund is still intact, Martinez asked why the government has not even supplied tents to the Miraculous Medal church in Lebanon where the OFWs taking refuge had spilled outside.

Martinez added that the government should rechannel the P1 billion budget for the anti-insurgency campaign to augment the evacuation funds of the OFWs.

He said that even Fr. Agustin Advincula, the only Filipino Catholic priest in Lebanon and the priest at the Miraculous Medal Sassine Church, has questioned where the OWWA funds has gone after seeing the plight of the OFWs taking refuge in the church.

Martinez said the priest told them the church is already shouldering the water expenses for the OFWs after the church’s own water supply has been cut.

“Bumibili na daw sila ng mineral water pero baka makaramdam na raw sila ng kakapusan sa pagkain,” Martinez echoed the priest’s sentiments. “Sa gabi, pinuputulan na daw sila ng kuryente para makatipid daw (ang gobyerno) ang Lebanon.”(They are already buying mineral water, and they might also run out of food. At night, electricity is turned off so the Lebanese government can save money.) Bulatlat

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