Manila, Philippines – The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is readying its air and naval assets to extract Filipinos trapped in the hot zones in Israel and Gulf states as the conflict there escalates, military officials said on Tuesday, March 3.
Tehran’s counterattacks across the Middle East – its retaliation to US and Israeli strikes on Iran – have forced much of the region’s airspace to shut down, putting the government in a dilemma to find a staging point where the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) could assemble for return home to the Philippines.
“This [repatriation] would be done in coordination with the DFA, DMW, and the DND. Handa po tayo but we will be waiting for their signal,” Col. Christina Basco, Philippine Air Force spokesperson, told a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo on Tuesday.
On standby are the Philippine Air Force’s C-130 aircraft used for humanitarian and rescue missions, as well as naval assets.
“For our air assets, most probably yung mobility natin dun sa air mobility command… most probably it would be C-130s. Yun ang initial sa planning,” Basco said.
The Philippine Navy, in 2020 following a global lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic, deployed the landing platform dock BRP Davao del Sur and offshore patrol vessel BRP Ramon Alcaraz to Oman and the Middle East to repatriate Filipinos at the time.
“Without going into details, all ships could be a dock vessel. Case in point, during the 2020 repatriation,” Navy spokesperson Capt. Marissa Martinez said.
“Your navy is prepared and is ready to support such operations once directed to do so,” she added.
When asked if US military operations in the Middle East would downscale support in the West Philippine Sea, Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad said there has been no “marked dip” in backing from defense allies.
“There’s been no marked observed downscale in the support of our treaty ally or even other like-minded nations when it comes to West Philippine Sea activities especially MMCAs (multilateral maritime cooperative activity),” Trinidad told the same briefing.
The navy official cited the 15th MMCA last week that Filipino troops held together with Japanese and American forces as a “classic example” of that support.
“So there has been no marked dip in the support of our treaty ally,” Trinidad said, even as he pointed out that with or without allies, the AFP will continue fulfilling its mandate.
