MANILA, 20 July 2006 — A day after a migrant workers’ group slammed the Philippine government for taking its time in moving OFWs out of troubled Lebanon, Manila officials yesterday said the evacuation is now in motion.

“We are now in evacuation mode,” presidential Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said in a press conference.

But a Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) official added that the evacuation would be on a voluntary basis.

Undersecretary Esteban Conejos, who heads the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Worker Affairs (OUMWA), said the initial evacuees numbered 200, 36 of whom had immigration-related cases.

“The evacuation is voluntary. We plan to bring home another 1,000 more from Lebanon,” Conejos told reporters after attending a meeting at Malacañang Palace.

In an earlier interview, Conejos insisted that the conditions are not yet there for evacuation, saying only violence in the streets will prompt authorities to raise the alert level to 4.

An alert level of 4 calls for evacuation of Filipinos from Lebanon. The present alert level stands at 3, which calls for relocation to safer grounds within Lebanon, he said.

The DFA has asked Filipinos in Lebanon to seek shelter in Roman Catholic churches, although doubts had been raised whether the churches could accommodate all of the 30,000 Filipinos, mostly domestic help, in the Mideastern country.

Earlier on Wednesday, DFA Spokesman Gilbert Asuque said the lack of funds was hampering government efforts to find safe passage for the Filipinos. On Tuesday, however, the government said it was tapping the welfare fund for OFWs for the purpose.

He said the government hoped to evacuate thousands by sea to Cyprus or by road to Syria.

Later, Conejos said the Filipinos in Lebanon will most likely take a chartered flight home via Dubai.

He also said the government is studying at least four alternative routes out of Lebanon.

“The repatriation will now be a continuing effort,” the department said, with Filipinos being directed to designated safe areas within Lebanon to be collected by staff from the Philippine Embassy in Beirut.

Lebanon has been under attack from Israel after the Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and refused to release them.