DFA: Rapid response team expected in Syria Wednesday

The rapid response team deployed to help repatriate Filipinos from violence-hit Syria is expected to arrive in Damascus on Wednesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said. DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said the team will help the Philippine Embassy negotiate with employers to help release Filipino helpers from their contracts. “I think darating sila ngayon kasi kaalis lang kahapon, so kung dumating man kadarating lang nila sa Damascus at kaagad sasabak yan sa trabaho para tumulong sa ating embahada sa repatriation efforts lalo sa pakikipag-negotiation sa amo para mapayagan ang OFW na umalis at makakuha ng exit visa para ma-repatriate sa ating bansa," Hernandez said in an interview on dwIZ radio. Hernandez said the response team will help the DFA to speed up the repatriation process. “Yung leader ng team ay taga-DFA at kaya malalaman natin through him kung ano ang bagong mga activities doon at mga accomplishment nitong team lalo na makipag-coordinate sila sa ating embahada para mapabilis ang repatriation ng ating kababayan doon," he said. The 10-member Rapid Response Team has representatives from the DFA and Labor, Interior and Defense departments, he said. The team was deployed by the Overseas Preparedness and Response Team headed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. The Philippines has placed Syria under Alert Level 3, which entails voluntary repatriation. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said on Monday out of more than 500 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who want to leave Syria, 17 OFWs — all domestic helpers —have been cleared for return to the Philippines after negotiations with their employers. In an interview over dwIZ radio, Baldoz said negotiations are going slowly for the more than 500 Filipinos in Syria who had expressed interest in availing of the Philippine government's call for voluntary repatriation. Contracts not unchangeable “It is a fundamental principle of law, which is constantly being proclaimed by international courts, that contractual undertakings must be respected. The rule pacta sunt servanda is the basis of every contractual relationship," it is stated in the oft-cited transnational case of Sapphire v. National Iranian Oil Company. But pacta sunt servanda pertains only to the inviolability of contracts and does not at all hold that all contracts must remain unchangeable at all times. There are, of course, exceptions. The most cited exception in national and international law is the countervailing principle of rebus sic stantibus or ‘fundamental change of circumstances’ —also known as ‘commercial impracticability’ (USA), or ‘frustration of purpose’ (UK), or Wegfall der Geschäftsgrundlage (Germany), or imprévision (France). Philippine officials can cite the continuing unrest in Middle Eastern and North African countries —known as the “Arab Spring"— as a fundamental change amounting to rebus sic stantibus to free OFWs from their contractual bonds, or at least as a bargaining chip in their negotiations. —with Marlon Anthony Tonson, VVP, GMA News