Filipinos married to Iraqis exempt from repatriation: Duterte

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte presides over the 42nd Cabinet Meeting at the Malacañan Palace on October 11, 2019. ALFRED FRIAS/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — Filipinos married to Iraqi nationals are not covered by the repatriation order imposed by the Philippine government in Iraq, President Rodrigo Duterte clarified.

“Well, in those places where there is really a great danger for the Filipinos to be staying, the latest advice I was given was that in Iraq, it is forced evacuation,” Duterte said in an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN aired Friday night.

“But on those who are married already, whose husbands are Iraqi nationals, we cannot do anything,” he added.

Mandatory repatriation in Iraq is still enforced and the deployment of Filipino workers to the Gulf state remains prohibited, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Thursday.

There are an estimated 4,000 Filipinos in Iraq, according to data from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Alert Level 4, which calls for mandatory repatriation of Filipinos in crisis-stricken areas, was raised in Iraq following the US airstrike in Baghdad that led to the death of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

Filipinos working and living in Iran and Lebanon are no longer covered by the mandatory repatriation order after alert levels in the two countries have been downgraded.

On Friday, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles called on Filipinos in Iraq to heed the Philippine government’s desire to repatriate them.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, however, said on Wednesday that the Duterte administration would respect any Filipinos who want to stay in Iraq despite the tensions between the US and Iraq.

Duterte has formed a special working committee that will oversee the evacuation and repatriation of Filipinos from the Middle East.

The panel is chaired by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and vice-chaired by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. Members are Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año, and Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade.

Duterte said he has been receiving updates from the special working panel.

“I requested Secretary Lorenzana to take stab of what we have, what equipment can be sent immediately, ships and airplane, and of course the provisioning of the evacuate ships to be quartered in the certain place outside of the harms and that would be Iraq and Iran,” he said.

“I (also) sent (retired) General Cimatu, Secretary Cimatu of the DENR. He used to be the special emissary of President (Gloria Macapagal) Arroyo (to the Middle East). And he has had a vast experience how to handle this kind of situation. He’s there already. He has been communicating with us,” he added.

Around PHP1.8 billion in government funds have been readied for the repatriation of Filipinos in the Middle East.