Region | Lebanon
Filipino evacuees now safe and sound in Manila
More than 400 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) clapped their hands in jubilation, thankful that they were finally safe and sound after enduring a hellish three-week ordeal in war-torn Lebanon.
- By Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief
- Published: 00:00 August 4, 2006
Manila: More than 400 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) clapped their hands in jubilation, thankful that they were finally safe and sound after enduring a hellish three-week ordeal in war-torn Lebanon.
Amidst the euphoria at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Fernanda Reyes was glum-faced as she was helped to a wheelchair by an airport ground staff.
The 65-year-old woman suffered a stroke during the bombing in southern Lebanon. She refused to recount her ordeal when pressed by reporters.
Reyes arrived on Wednesday with 450 Filipino workers on a flight chartered by the United Nation's International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
"Bombing went on for days. I'm glad I'm still sane and alive. I'm very happy I'm home," said Jelanie Hermoso, 21, who worked as a maid in the southern village of Saida.
She said her employer, Ahmad Ghaddar, a Lebanese businessman, even accompanied her to the Philippine Embassy in Beirut so that she could be repatriated to Manila.
Ghaddar then fled with his family to Dubai.
"I had to wait for several days at the Church of Miraculous Medal in Achrafieh district before I was included in the batch of OFWs who were brought to Syria," Hermoso said.
Leila Esmael Salipula, 21, said they moved out of south Beirut after a bomb hit the roof of her employer's house.
"It was scary. We hid in the mountains," she recalled.
Salipula was thankful that her Lebanese employer also took her to the Philippine Embassy.
"The wife of my employer went to Syria. One of their children went to Switzerland. My employer and his two children stayed behind," she said.
Vivian Maribujoc, 35, was not very lucky. She had to run away from her employer who refused to let her leave.
"They did not want me to go. I left before dawn and paid $20 (Dh73) to a cab driver so he'd take me to the embassy," she said.
From the embassy, she and several others were brought to a Catholic Church which sheltered other Filipino evacuees.
"The church was so crowded. We slept on the floor," she recalled.
"I was surprised to meet one of the volunteers there. He had assisted me when I was repatriated from Kuwait during the Iraq war in 2003," she said.
Maribujoc was also one of the 200 newly-arrived evacuees who were brought to the ABS-CBN television studios to participate in a popular game show where one of them won one million pesos (Dh71,388). The game show was later criticised for allegedly exploiting the OFWs to gain publicity.
According to Sylvia Tolentino, chief of the Repatriation Assistance Division of the Philippine Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, a plane-load of evacuees was scheduled to arrive from Syria on Thursday.
The Philippine government has repatriated a total of 2,200 OFWs since last week. There are about 35,000 OFWs in Lebanon, most of them working as domestic helpers or in service industries. About 2,000 are based in southern Lebanon which bore the brunt of Israel attacks.
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