Mga Panghitabo (News)

MANILA, Philippines — The government is studying the possibility of resuming the evacuation of Filipino workers in Lebanon if civil unrest in the strife-torn Middle East country worsens, an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Wednesday.

At the same time, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently signed an executive order extending the duration of operations of the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee, which was created on December 2002, to June 30, 2007.

In a press briefing in Malacañang, Foreign Affairs undersecretary Esteban Conejos said that Roy Cimatu, Arroyo’s special envoy to the Middle East, would be going to Lebanon within the week to assess the current situation.

“What we are doing is to constantly monitor the political and security situation in the area,” Conejos said. “We are reassessing our contingency planning to address possible scenarios…In the event of civil disorder we would escalate the Alert Level to form which would mean the evacuation of our nationals.”

When fighting broke out July last year between Israeli troops and fighters of the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, the government evacuated some 11,000 of the 30,000 Filipino workers estimated to be working there.

Of the evacuated workers, 5,000 have since found work in other Middle East countries while the rest have been repatriated.

Although the evacuation was stopped after hostilities ceased, the government has maintained a ban on the deployment of workers to Lebanon ordered by Arroyo last August.

However, while the ceasefire has so far held, there has been a brewing political crisis in Lebanon marked by mounting protests by critics of the government there, including Hezbollah.

Aside from assessing the situation in Lebanon, Conejos said Cimatu will also account for all overseas Filipino workers, assign leaders in each district to serve as contact points, study possible exit routes and test these, and reassess and identify resources should an evacuation become necessary.