MANILA — As the evacuation of some 30,000 Filipinos from Lebanon continues, the government said yesterday it was also putting in place a plan to do the same for some 6,000 Filipino caregivers in the northernmost part of Israel.

Undersecretary Esteban Conejos, head of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) Office of Migrant Workers Affairs, said that while there was still no need to evacuate, the workers were being prepared for a smooth flow should they need to be moved out of their place of work.

Conejos said the plan identifies two places in northern Israel where there are Filipinos: Area 1, which is the closest to the Lebanon border where some 3,000 Filipino caregivers live, and Area 2, a little south of Area 1 where another 3,000 Filipinos stay.

He said the plan is to move the workers in Haifa to Tel Aviv. “Any plan to evacuate our people will be executed upon consultation with the Israeli Defense Force. If they tell you to move, you move,” he said.

Conejos explained that evacuation plans, both in Lebanon and Israel, involved two steps: movement to a safer place within the country and movement out of the country.

An estimated 30,000 Filipinos are in Israel.

Conejos said the DFA is waiting for an assessment report from the Philippine Embassy in Israel before implementing the evacuation plan. “It’s not a passive move but a prudent act. Timing must be coordinated,” he said.

Philippine Vice Consul to Israel Thaddeus Hamoy earlier said Christine Marie Gonzales, 26, of Makati City, called the embassy and asked to be evacuated after a Hezbollah rocket destroyed a house beside her employer’s home.

Conejos said the DFA came up with the evacuation plan after receiving reports that other Muslim militant groups in the Middle East could join Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon to fight Israeli forces.

Israeli air raids killed more than 50 people on Monday, making it one of deadliest days for Lebanon in the war. Lebanese Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh said 925 people,

The government has brought home about 3,000 of the 30,000 Filipinos from Lebanon after fighting erupted between that country and Israel, with casualties mounting on both sides.

Two Filipino domestics have been reportedly killed and at least three others were injured while trying to flee their employers.

The government hopes to evacuate more Filipinos over the next days and has advised those who are still in the war-torn country to stay out of harm’s way.

Injured

Yesterday, the two injured maids who jumped off the apartment buildings of their employers in Lebanon, arrived in Manila as part of the 3rd batch of 454 Filipinos who were moved to Damascus, Syria, by bus last Friday.

Janet Aliangan and Vanessa Butalan arrived on stretchers and were immediately taken to a government hospital in Manila for further treatment.

One of the dead maids was Michelle Tomagan, of Angono town in Rizal, east of Manila. A report by the Overseas’ Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), quoting Lebanese police investigation records, said the maid had tied up bed sheets to escape from her employer’s fourth floor balcony on July 28. She plunged to the ground when the makeshift rope broke. With a fractured head, she died on the way to the hospital.

A copy of the report, signed by Bassam Jawad and Youssef Hanna, identified the employers as Joumana Saber and her husband. A separate police report, dated July 26, did not indicate whether Mary Jane Pangilinan, was trying to flee her employer, Richard El Hajj. It was prepared by Ahmad Abdul Rahman and Raymond Isaac.

It only said that she died of a neck and leg fracture “as a result of (a) fall” from her employer’s house on the fourth floor of the building.

Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Al Francis Bichara said the reports, which his office received on July 29, were delayed “due to dilatory factors attendant to the current crisis situation in Lebanon, including the closure of certain roads due to the Israeli air strikes, the congestion of landlines/mobile networks, and the highly erratic schedule of local authorities.”

“These factors combined with the concentration of the energies and time of embassy personnel to the continuous evacuation of OFWs on 26, 27, 28, and 29 July further delayed the reporting,” he added.

OWWA said only Pangilinan was a member of the agency and her family was therefore entitled to a 200,000-peso life insurance and 20,000-peso burial benefit.

OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque said that even if Tomagan was not a member of the OWWA, it would “try to do its best to assist her family in whatever form.”

Early in the day, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo expressed “outrage” over the deaths of Tomagan and Pangilinan, as she ordered authorities to ensure the safety and protection of Filipino workers still in Lebanon.

The president ordered this week the full evacuation of some 30,000 Filipinos in the war-torn state and formed a task force, headed by Vice President Noli de Castro, to carry out the plan.