JEDDAH, 15 July 2007 — All but two of more than 900 Filipinos who have asked for help in returning home have been repatriated, the Philippine Consulate General said yesterday.
Consul General Pendosina N. Lomondot said the last group of 75, all male, departed Friday on board a Gulf Air flight. An updated report of the consulate said a total of 922 were repatriated.
“It’s over. I’m very thankful to the officials of Saudi Arabia for their gesture of compassion in accommodating our request for the repatriation of our stranded compatriots,” Lomondot said as he confirmed the safe arrival in Manila of the last group.
He said the repatriation expenses for all the stranded Filipinos were also generously shouldered by the Saudi government.
Arab News gathered that only two of the stranded were unable to leave.
Demetriou Gabayero, 57, was being treated for lung cancer at the King Fahd Hospital and has not yet been allowed by his doctors to leave.
Eulides Ayub, 58, is undergoing dialysis for a kidney ailment in the same hospital.
A third man who failed to make it to the Philippines was Faisal Bandila, who died on June 18 at King Fahd Hospital, where he was taken when he had hypertension.
Lomondot also thanked members of the Filipino community for giving food and other amenities to the stranded when these were at the consulate and later at the Immigration Department’s “safehouse” while their travel papers were being processed. “The support given by these compassionate groups and individuals made the entire repatriation effort a success,” he said.
He added that the Department of Foreign Affairs spent at least $25,000 for food, amenities and transportation alone.
Lomondot would not comment on reports that the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Manila had been unable to provide the plane tickets requested by the consulate for the stranded Filipinos.
“Naubos daw ang kuwarta ng OWWA sa Lebanon (they said the OWWA fund was drained because of the Lebanon crisis),” said one consulate official, who asked not to be named, referring to the repatriation of thousands of Filipinos from Lebanon during the Israeli invasion last year.
The OWWA's welfare officers in Jeddah, however, worked hand in hand with the consulate staff in assisting the stranded. The Welfare office also reportedly provided transportation expenses for those who needed to go home in the provinces.
The crisis in Jeddah began on May 27 when more than 200 stranded Filipinos, mostly victims of fixers in the Eastern Province and Riyadh, flocked to the consulate in Jeddah to seek help after two months of waiting for the “backdoor departure” they were promised.
In an unprecedented move, Lomondot allowed the stranded Filipinos to stay inside the consulate compound until the Saudi Immigration Department granted the consulate’s request to provide them travel documents.
While some of the overstayers were flown to the Philippines very soon, most of them had to wait at the Quorayet “safehouse” at the Jeddah Seaport for weeks while their travel documents were processed.
