CLARK FREEPORT — The Philippine embassy in war-stricken Tripoli has urged Filipino workers there to “seriously consider” flying back to the Philippines even as it assisted one worker who was injured during one of the bombings in the Libyan capital.
Charge d’ affaires Elmer Cato, who arrived in Tripoli as new Philippine ambassador only recently, said in his Facebook account over the weekend that he and his staff were able to “get Rolando Torres—our kababayan who narrowly survived the barrage of rockets that struck Tripoli late Tuesday night.”
At least 18 other OFWs in the outskirts of Tripoli narrowly escaped “rocket barrages” that hit a clinic where they worked last Thursday, he reported.
“Rolando has been working in Tripoli since 2006 and had seen the Libyan capital at its most violent but the attack last night that wounded the Nueva Ecija native in the forehead was different. He now wants to go home,” said Cato who had also served as ambassador in Baghdad.
Cato recalled that “five days after I arrived in Baghdad four years ago, a suicide car bomber detonates himself at the hotel I was staying in. Five days after I arrived in Libya, a rival army declares war on Tripoli and threatens to capture the capital city.”
He reported that 18 Filipinos working at the Qasr bin Gashir, where heavy fighting was reported, survived an attack last Thursday at the Al Afia Clinic where they worked, 29 kilometers south of Tripoli.
Cato said Consular Assistant Jas de Guzman had earlier tried to convince them to move to a safer location but they refused.
He said that after the attack on the clinic, “we were able to reach our kababayan in Al Afia. We asked if they would want to be repatriated after that close call of theirs. They thanked us for the off er but said they have no plans of going. They would all be staying.”
“We were able to contact the owner of Al Afia who assured us that all of his Filipino staff are safe in the basement of the hospital and that there was no need for us to worry. He said he will be moving them to a safe location,” he also said.
Cato also said that earlier, an augmentation team from the Department of Foreign Affairs is now in Tripoli. “The team, led by my batchmate Iric Cruz Arribas of the Office of Migrant Workers Affairs, was sent to help the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli to make sure that our kababayan would be led out of harm’s way should the situation in the outskirts deteriorate further,” he said.
Noting that Tripoli proper was already being hit by “rocket barrages,” Cato “strongly” advised Filipinos “to stay indoors, move to safer locations, or seriously consider our off er to bring them home.”
