Palace creates crisis team for Pinoys in conflict areas

Malacañang has formed a team to bolster government’s assistance to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) caught in conflicts or disasters in their host countries. President Benigno Aquino III has signed Executive Order 34 that creates the Overseas Preparedness and Response Team (OPRT) under the Office of the President, the Presidential Communications Operations Office said Saturday. The order will “ensure the safety and security" of Filipinos abroad in times of crisis, Malacañang said. The Palace said the recent natural disasters that hit Japan and New Zealand and the political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa underscored the need to expand the scope of the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee (PMEPC). Malacañang also cited the need to integrate agency policy plans for swift government response. Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., who will chair the body, pointed out that natural disasters, civil unrest, armed conflicts, and similar crises in other countries expose overseas Filipinos to immediate hazards and risks. “So, it is only imperative that we establish a measure and a system that would ensure the safety and welfare of our kababayans [countrymen] abroad," he said. Crafting of strategies, programs, policies According to Malacañang, the OPRT will replace the PMEPC, which was created under Executive Order 159 in 2002. The recently signed executive order said the OPRT will be composed of the executive secretary as chairperson and presidential adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers’ Concerns, and the secretaries of departments of Foreign Affairs, Labor and Employment, National Defense, Justice, Interior and Local Government, and Budget and Management as members. The OPRT is tasked to formulate strategies, programs, and policies to appropriately respond to crisis situations affecting Filipinos abroad, the Palace noted. It also said the team will also “develop and adopt interactive operating arrangements" among government agencies to effect maximum coordination. The panel may likewise seek bilateral and multilateral partners for assistance in the formulation and implementation of plans, programs, and policies, the order said. Experts and trained personnel Under the order, the team will establish a pool of crisis management and technical experts and trained personnel “to form rapid reaction teams." The experts will be deployed to areas hit by crisis where there are significant concentrations of Filipinos. The panel will also conduct periodic review and assessment to update individual contingency plans submitted by the Philippine embassies and consulates general for proper policy and operational guidance, the Palace noted. The order said the team is further tasked to formulate and review contingency plans for the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Pacific, the Americas, and Europe every six months. Additional personnel to reinforce Philippine foreign missions may be dispatched upon the permission of the panel for the duration of at least three months to ensure systematic repatriation and relocation activities, according to the order. Aside from putting in place a monitoring mechanism to regularly gather and update information on the identities and locations of Filipinos in crisis-prone regions, the panel will also prepare a comprehensive communication plan to inform the public of the actions taken by the government. Moreover, the OPRT will also undertake threat and environmental scanning to ensure the safety and protection of Filipinos abroad, the order said. “It is in the national interest that the safety and welfare of Filipinos overseas be accorded primordial importance," Ochoa said.—With Jesse Edep/JV, GMA News