MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine vice president supported the lifting of the three-year ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Lebanon because the security situation in that strife-torn country has already improved.
Besides, Vice President Noli de Castro said the lifting would help tremendously in providing more job opportunities to Filipino workers who have been adversely affected by the worsening global economic and financial meltdown.
De Castro, the presidential adviser on OFWs, made known his stand following a meeting with Cabinet officials, led by Secretary Alberto Romulo of the Department of Foreign Affairs and retired military general Ambassador Roy Cimatu, regarding the proposal to lift the ban.
Cimatu reported that normalcy and relative peace have returned to Lebanon since the 2006 armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants, which forced the Philippine government to evacuate the OFWs working there and impose the ban.
Cimatu has been to Lebanon several times in his capacity as the special Philippine envoy tasked to check on the interest, safety and welfare of OFWs deployed in “hot spots,” particularly in the Middle East.
Latest reports said there are about 20,000 Filipinos in Lebanon, 99 percent of whom are working in the households of Maronite Christians in Northern Beirut.
Earlier, Joseph Assad, the Lebanese honorary consul to the Philippines, urged the government to lift the ban because his country is already safe.
Assad was joined by Abdul Kader Al Jadid, the president of the Filipino-Lebanese Friendship Community, who told the Department of Labor and Employment that his country needs thousands of foreign workers in its infrastructure and other rehabilitation projects
Assad and Jadid said that since political stability has returned, Lebanon is experiencing a construction boom and is in need of waiters, waitresses, chambermaids, receptionists, salesladies as well as skilled construction workers like carpenters, electricians, welders, plumbers and fabricators.
They said Lebanese employers prefer Filipino workers because of their fluency in English and the quality service they provide.
“The labor department should not let this opportunity pass for thousands of OFWs affected by the deepening global crisis,” Jadid said in a statement.
But John Leonard Monterona, the regional coordinator of Migrante in the Middle East, cautioned the government against lifting the ban as he insisted that Lebanon is still an unsafe destination for OFWs and tourists.
Migrante is a militant non-government organization looking after the welfare and interest of the more than eight million OFWs deployed in the Middle East, the US and North America, the United Kingdom, Italy as well as neighboring countries like Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Korea.
In opposing the lifting of the ban, Monterona cited the killing on Monday of Kamal Naji, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) deputy representative in Lebanon and a close aide of the late PLO chief Yasser Arafat, during a bomb attack outside a refugee camp in that country.
The Naji assassination, Monterona warned, could revive the war between Lebanon and Israel which has been blamed for the killing.
He pointed out that as long as anti-Israel groups remain in Lebanon, this would put everyone at risk, especially the OFWs whose lives, safety as well as the protection of their labor rights and welfare should be guaranteed by the Philippine government.
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