Over 9000 Pinoys now out of Libya, says DFA

The number of Filipinos evacuated out of Libya further rose to 9,231 after a Philippine-chartered vessel left the strife-torn African nation carrying more than 1,000 repatriates, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Wednesday. This, as Budget Secretary Florencio Abad denied that the government does not have enough funds to repatriate overseas Filipino workers from Libya and other strife-torn countries due to the 2011 budget cuts the DFA sustained for the current year. “I stress that we have funds that can be used to rescue our [overseas Filipino workers or OFWs] in distress abroad," Abad said in a statement Wednesday. Sen. Manny Villar Jr., who lost in the May 2010 presidential race to President Benigno Aquino III, said repatriation efforts in Libya are being hampered by lack of funds due to the cuts in the DFA's 2001 budget.
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV But according to Abad, the issues from the ongoing repatriation efforts are more operational than budgetary. “These operational issues are largely due to the emergency nature of the activity and the difficulty and uncertainty of operations due to risks to life and limb, as well as the difficulty of access. This is the bigger problem that government faces, not funding," he said. Abad also said the main source of funds for ongoing repatriation is the P13-billion OFW Trust Fund administered by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA). Ionian Queen According to the DFA, the Cyrpus-flagged, Greek-owned MV Ionian Queen left Benghazi’s Port of Gulani at 1 a.m. (Libya Standard Time) Wednesday. The vessel, hired by the Philippine government for the repatriation, arrived at the Libyan port at about 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday to pick up 1,290 Filipinos there. From Benghazi, the Ionian Queen, which can carry up to 1,725 passengers, headed for the Greek island of Crete. Benghazi is the site of violent protests aimed at ending the decades-old rule of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. In a statement, the DFA said conditions in Benghazi “have somewhat normalized," noting that “banks and shops have opened and police are back in the streets." DFA Secretary Albert del Rosario flew to Tunisia last Saturday to personally oversee the Philippine government’s repatriation efforts. He — along with Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. and an embassy officer — traveled to Libya by land on Sunday. Del Rosario returned to the Philippine on Tuesday and relayed to the media the progress of evacuation from the African nation. Home sweet home The DFA was quoted in a radio dzBB report as saying that almost 860 Filipinos have already returned home safely from Libya. A partial list of the names is available on the department’s website. As of Tuesday, the DFA said over 4,000 Filipinos who have signified their interest to leave Libya were awaiting evacuation. On Monday, some 550 Filipinos were able to flee from Libya to Tunisia, some of whom later took a flight to the United Arab Emirates. Also last Monday, 42 other Filipinos working for a German company in Libya were evacuated from the North African country to Frankfurt, Germany.

The DFA said all 42 workers did not have their passports with them when they left Libya as they were evacuated directly from their work site. Consul General Maria Cleofe Natividad of the Philippine consulate in Frankfurt and her staff worked through the night so the repatriates could get their travel documents free of charge, the DFA added. P100 million for Libya ops According to Abad, an estimated P100 million has already been released by the OWWA Board of Trustees for the operations in Libya. He said apart from the P13-billion OFW Trust Fund, the DFA has a minimum of P138.7 million — the balance from Assistance to Nationals budget. He said at the maximum, the DFA can use P187.8 million — the total lump-sum fund from the implementation of Republic Act No. 10022 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 2009, minus the P30 million minimum required for the Legal Assistance Fund (LAF) and DFA’s operating expenses in the implementation of ATN and LAF. He said the DFA budget for 2011 is P10.83 billion or P1.86 billion lower than its 2010 budget. Abad said this is because it has P4.79 billion in estimated savings from 2010, mostly from maintenance expenditures, congressional insertions that could not be released due to lack of revenue backing, and the delayed implementation of the P3.2-billion electronic passport project. — KBK/VS, GMA News