Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 10) — The Department of Migrant workers on Tuesday said despite ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, there is no deployment ban to the Middle Eastern country in effect.
DMW officer-in-charge Hans Leo Cacdac made the clarification at a joint briefing with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
“Technically wala pa tayong deployment ban sa ngayon [there is no deployment ban for now],” he said.
Cacdac said what is happening is a hold in the deployment of workers — particularly hotel workers — because the Ben Gurion International Airport is closed, however he added there may have been more recent developments on the status of the gateway.
“We are in close coordination with the Israeli counterpart and at the proper time deployment will resume, especially for what we call G-to-G (government-to-government) hotel workers for Israel,” he said.
Cacdac said that on average around 1,800 hotel workers are deployed in a given year.
“With respect for a deployment ban in general, we’re looking toward Usec. Ed (de Vega) and the DFA because we know that the deployment ban framework is anchored on the alert level system, alert level set by the Department of Foreign Affairs and this is in accordance with the law,” Cacdac added.
According to the DFA, Alert Level 1 is the precautionary phase. Alert Level 2 is the restricted phase, meaning new hires will not be deployed. Alert Level 3 would mean voluntary repatriation. Alert Level 4 means there is a breakdown in order and “practically full-scale war,” said de Vega.
“But again, the situation we are in is that we have a government-to-government hiring arrangement with our Israeli counterparts. So, it’s a two-way street. We have to be well coordinated with our Israeli labor and immigration counterparts before we even proceed, kahit na walang [even if there is no] ban,” Cacdac said.
The case of the deployment of Filipino caregivers is a different matter, the DFA clarified.
