Still in harm’s way

Sarmiento, on the other hand, said they have been lucky that their employer Vinci Construction had contingency measures and procedures in evacuating their workers under extraordinary circumstances.

Other Filipino workers have been unfortunate and are still trapped in the chaos of Libya, he said.

Filipino nurse Jane Aglay-McGlinchy said she and more than 100 other Filipino medical workers were waiting for Philippine authorities to evacuate them or arrange their evacuation from the Omar Ali Askar Neuro Hospital, some 45 minutes by land from Tripoli proper. McGlinchy was able to reach The STAR by phone asking for help.

This developed as Migrante International yesterday reported that a Filipino worker was killed during the intense fighting in Benghazi last Monday.

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said they received a report last Friday from a member in Libya who was among those trapped in Benghazi that a still unidentified Filipino worker fell from a rig while escaping a group of armed men that attacked their workplace.

“The report reaching us there is an OFW who died when armed men attacked their project site camp on Feb.21,” Monterona said.

“According to our member, the remains of the OFW were brought to Jalo General Hospital,” he said.

Monterona said their members and fellow OFWs in Benghazi had left their work places and proceeded to Tubruq, the city of Libya bordering Egypt.

“At the moment, we are facing difficulty to verify the identity of the OFW casualty as most of our Filipino workers have left Benghazi, thus no one could be asked to verify the identity of the dead OFW,” Monterona said.

“We are not quite sure if there are still OFW nurses or staff working at Jalo hospital who could verify the OFW remains at the hospital’s morgue,” he added.

Migrante said Filipinos had been left to fend for themselves in Libya.

Monterona added most of the Filipino workers in Libya are still hoping that the Philippine authorities would rescue them from the chaos.

Logistical challenges

President Aquino earlier assured that help is on way for Filipino workers trapped in Libya.

Aquino said the government had already made transport arrangements and identified exit points for the safe evacuation of the Filipinos in Libya should the political situation worsen.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) under acting Secretary Albert del Rosario went to Tunisia to personally supervise the assistance and evacuation of the Filipino workers trapped in neighboring Libya.

“Our objective is to undertake the relocation and repatriation as quickly as possible. We are fully committed to ensuring the safety and welfare of our beloved Filipinos in Libya,” Del Rosario said in a statement issued before his abrupt departure to Tunisia late Friday.

Del Rosario, who assumed office last Thursday, defended the DFA against criticisms of inaction on the workers’ plight.

“I think that we are trying our best. The conditions are changing as you obviously can see and we are trying to enhance the process for protecting our people on the basis of condition as we see them,” Del Rosario said. “We’re now at that point where we must focus on getting our people out and so it’s full focus and full dedication to accomplishing that objective,” he said.

Del Rosario said the DFA would be deploying additional personnel coming from the various embassies in the surrounding countries to help in terms of manning requirement of getting Filipinos out of Libya and repatriating them to Manila.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) also directed all employers and recruitment agencies that deployed the Filipino workers in Libya to activate contingency plans to get them out.

POEA administrator Carlos Cao Jr. ordered employers and recruitment agencies to report to the POEA “any mass evacuation operations from Libya to any identified exit sites, including the flight details of workers, in case of repatriation to Manila.”

The Philippine Air Force (PAF), for its part, announced that they are ready to take long haul flights to Libya.

PAF spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Okol said they are just awaiting orders to proceed with the evacuation procedure.

“If there’s already an order for us to proceed and assist in the evacuation operation, our C-130 which is now on standby here at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City as well as the pilots and the security escorts, can immediately take off,” Okol said.

Once given the go-signal, Okol said the C-130 transport plane would immediately fly to its pre-approved destination in Alexandria, Egypt.

From Manila, the C-130 plane would be making three refueling stops, first in Bangkok, then Mumbia in India, and Abu Dhabi before proceeding to Alexandria in Egypt where coordination would be made with Philippine embassy officials on how to bring Filipinos out of Libya to the Egyptian port city.

The approved C-130 flight to Egypt will cover 5,469 nautical miles with 18 hours and 35 minutes of flight time, Okol said.

Malacañang admitted the difficulty of ensuring the evacuation of all the 30,000 Filipino workers out of Libya.

President Aquino earlier stressed the logistical challenges ahead in getting the OFWs out of Libya as the situation in the North African country is getting worse.

Fears of a full-scale civil war erupting in Libya have prompted several countries to charter ferries and planes to get their citizens to safety despite poor communication and violent clashes.

Thousands of foreigners packed Tripoli’s airport hoping to leave the raging chaos behind, with those who managed to flee describing anarchic scenes of food and water supplies running low.

The worsening situation has prompted lawmakers to propose emergency powers for President Aquino.

Malacañang, however said it is not keen on the idea of granting the President the emergency powers over the issue.

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said the government is focused on efforts to repatriate the thousands of Filipino workers still trapped in Libya.

“We cannot comment on emergency powers as we have not been apprised of the actual specifics that lawmakers intend to propose,” Valte said.

Valte noted that some lawmakers made the proposal in anticipation of possible adverse political and economic effects of the Libyan crisis on the country.

Lawmakers also urged the President to immediately convene an inter-agency meeting to draft a long-term plan regarding the deployment of Filipino workers abroad due to the spreading political unrest in the Middle East.

There are over eight million OFWs worldwide, with more than one million deployed in the Middle East and Africa.

Other workers are in countries that are experiencing severe economic difficulties. Budget and Management Secretary Florencio Abad earlier stressed there was no need for a supplemental budget for the evacuation and repatriation of OFWs in countries experiencing political unrest because funds for these purposes were already available.

Valte said all options were being explored to get the Filipinos out of Libya.

Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi has vowed to fight his ouster to death.

Former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. appealed to Ghadafi to allow the United Nations to intervene and help set up a transition government to prevent more bloodshed.

“Presuming on Your Excellency’s goodwill, I am making this last-ditch effort to suggest that— even this late in the day—an ‘Interim, Transition Government of National Salvation’ might still offer the Tripoli leadership, its urban opposition, Libyan civil society, and Libya’s tribal groupings a political framework for sitting down and reasoning together,” De Venecia wrote Gadhafi, in his capacity as one of the leaders of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties and member of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF).

De Venecia , wrote a letter to the beleaguered Libyan leader last Feb. 25, which was coursed through Acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto del Rosario.

“You may wish to consider these ideas in concert with others. Under the aegis of the United Nations, perhaps your Government should urgently invite a special United Nations Mediation Team to mediate the crisis in Libya before it metes out more suffering and bloodshed among the Libyan people and prevent the dreaded final confrontation between citizens protesters, private militia and the Armed Forces,” De Venecia said. –With Sheila Crisostomo, Jose Rodel Clapano, Pia Lee-Brago, Aurea Calica, Paolo Romero, Jaime Laude and Eva Visperas