THE Department of Foreign Affairs said 13 Filipinos who evacuated from Ukraine amid continued attacks by Russian forces have safely reached Poland.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. welcomed the 13 Filipinos at the Rava-Ruska-Hrebenne border crossing station in Poland.
The evacuees who traveled to Lviv, a Ukrainian city near the Polish border, and from there crossed to Poland, were led by ambassador to Poland Leah Basinang-Ruiz who is overseeing the government’s efforts to repatriate Filipinos in Ukraine.
The embassy in Poland also exercises jurisdiction over Ukraine as Manila does not have an embassy in that country.
“We are on high-alert 24/7 to ensure that Filipinos are safe in this conflict. Our embassies in Poland and Hungary have been working hard these past days to account for each Filipino in Ukraine, and to repatriate them as soon as possible. Our people only need to ask, and we will get them home safe,” Locsin said in a statement.
DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola said over 40 Filipinos have evacuated from Kyiv to Lviv and were just awaiting repatriation, and five Filipinos crossed from Ukraine to Moldova which has opened its borders to non-visa and non-passport holders, like Poland.
Six Filipinos are back in Manila, she said, adding the 13 Filipinos now in Poland, five in Moldova, and four in Lviv are awaiting repatriation.
However, Arriola said, some Filipinos still prefer to stay and wait for the conflict in Ukraine to end because of the good working condition and pay they have there.
“Some still hope that the situation would get better, while others are married to Ukrainians,” she said.
Arriola said the 13 Filipinos who arrived in Poland would have to undergo COVID-19 testing before their flight back to Manila.
Despite the ongoing fighting in Ukraine, the DFA maintained Alert Level 2 or the “restriction phase.”
Alert Level 2 is issued by the DFA when there are real threats to the life, security and property of Filipinos due to instability, internal disturbance and external threat.
Alert Level 4, meanwhile, calls for the mandatory evacuation of Filipinos and is the highest of the four-tier alert level system.
There are around 380 Filipinos in Ukraine and 8,000 in Russia.
Meanwhile, the DFA said all 11 Filipino crew members of a Turkish bulk carrier struck by a bomb near Odessa port in Ukraine are safe, citing reports from the Philippine Embassy in Ankara, the Consulate General in Istanbul, and the owner of the Turkish-flagged vessel Yasa Jupiter.
The DFA said the 11 have already contacted their respective families to inform them they were safe.
The vessel proceeded to Romania after the attack. The incident highlighted growing concerns that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would disrupt vital shipping routes in the Black Sea.
On Friday, a Japanese-owned but Panamanian-flagged cargo freighter Namura Queen was also hit by missile as it was transiting the Ukrainian port of Tuzhny off the coast of Odessa in the Black Sea. The vessel, which had 20 Filipino crew members, also proceeded to Romania after the incident.
One of the Filipino crew member sustained non-life threatening injury
PRAYERS
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) asked the Filipino faithful to join Pope Francis in praying for peace in Ukraine, and to fast on March 2, Ash Wednesday.
“Let us pray for the Russians to have their conscience touched so that they themselves will ask their government to stop the war it started,” said CBCP president Bishop Pablo David.
Pope Francis called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday and expressed his “most profound pain” for the country’s suffering, the Ukrainian Embassy to the Vatican said.
“The Holy Father expressed his most profound pain for the tragic events happening in our country,” the embassy said in a tweet.
The Vatican confirmed the call and in his own tweet, Zelenskiy said he thanked the pope “for praying for peace in Ukraine and a ceasefire. The Ukrainian people feel the spiritual support of His Holiness.”
The conversation took place a day after the pope made a surprise visit to the Russian embassy to relay his concern over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Moscow’s ambassador, in an unprecedented departure from diplomatic protocol.
The Russian ambassador denied an Argentine media report that the pope, 85, had offered the Vatican’s mediation.
Also on Friday, the pope called Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, leader of Ukraine’s Eastern-rite Catholics who has vowed not to leave Kyiv and who has opened up his cathedral’s basement as a bomb shelter. Shevchuk’s Rome office said the pope told the archbishop “I will do everything I can” to help.
The Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches said it also stands in solidarity with the World Evangelical Alliance and the European Evangelical Alliance in calling for an immediate ceasefire, and a prompt withdrawal of the invading Russian forces from Ukraine. — With Gerard Naval and Reuters