NO MASS REPATRIATION IN LEBANON, PHILIPPINE MULLS ALERT LEVEL 4

MANILA, Sept 27 (Bernama-PNA) -- The Philippine government is “seriously considering” placing Lebanon under alert level 4 or mandatory evacuation as Israel continues to bombard Hezbollah targets in some parts of the country, Philippine News Agency (PNA) reported, citing the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Friday.

In a press briefing, DFA Undersecretary for Migration Eduardo Jose de Vega said there is no mass repatriation of Filipinos in Lebanon yet but the country is ready to implement one should the need arises.

He noted, however, that alert level 4 is declared only in case of a large-scale internal conflict or a full-blown external attack, which is “not the case in Lebanon”.

“We know that the conflict is centred between Israel and Hezbollah targets and not the entirety of Lebanon, certainly not the Lebanese government,” he said.

He urged Filipino nationals to repatriate voluntarily.

De Vega and Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Raymond Balatbat added that the majority of the Filipinos there, especially the Filipino community leaders are “very hesitant to leave,” a sign that they “still feel relatively safe in Lebanon”.

"Majority of them, the old-timers, are adamant that they will not leave whatever happens, that they will survive this conflict. And these are the leaders," PNA reported Balatbat said.

The envoy, who joined the presser virtually, said the official number of Filipinos in Lebanon is around 11,000 but this could be higher due to “undocumented” nationals.

Of this number, the embassy is processing the return of some 1,300 Filipinos, with the next batch of repatriation expected to take place in the first week of October depending on the commercial flights in Beirut’s international airport.

Balatbat also reported that the 196 Filipinos residing in southern Lebanon, where the heavy fighting is concentrated, have all fled and are now taking shelter in safer places in the country.

“So far, still no Filipino has been reported injured due to the wake of attacks against Hezbollah targets in the past few days, you can sense that there is an escalation of the attacks against Hezbollah but they have not yet resulted in injury to a Filipino,” De Vega said.

The series of Israeli strikes against Hezbollah has killed over 600 since Monday, according to local reports.

-- BERNAMA-PNA