Metro Manila, November 10 ------ Thirty-five out of 40 Filipinos, who were allowed to exit Gaza, are expected to arrive in the Philippines today, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed. DFA Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega clarified that out of the 40 Filipinos who exited Gaza, 35 are included in the repatriation flight along with one Palestinian spouse. "Not all of them, out of 40 Filipinos, three are remaining in their family kasi nandoon 'ang Egyptian husbands, though they're trying to get permanent residence," de Vega told reporters.
De Vega said the first batch of Filipinos will join the repatriation flight via Qatar Airways arriving at Terminal 3. Meanwhile, he said the crossing into Cairo should have opened but it was closed for security reasons. The DFA is yet to find out if it will open on Thursday, he added. “But good news naman is all the remaining Filipinos have been approved, meaning to say, if they want to go, they can all go as a group, hindi in batches of 30, 40, 50, they all can go as a group, 95 Filipinos, and they have approved 16 of the Palestinian spouses,” de Vega said. “Not all, there were some who were not allowed because they did not pass the security checks," he added. "So, we are counting on the work being done diplomatically by these countries ‘yung US, para magbukas ulit ‘yung border but of course, for security in the borders." he added.
De Vega said there are 19 Filipinos who expressed desire to remain in Gaza no matter the situation. He added that he does not think that there will be any problem in the arrival of Palestinian spouses in the Philippines. Some of those who did not want to leave Gaza were committed to stay despite the danger. De Vega said those citizens feel that “ leaving Gaza will be like allowing the Israelis to, in their minds, depopulate Gaza.” He said that another reason might be due to not having relatives in the Philippines anymore. “We’re not really forcing everybody to leave but they know that we are calling them to leave dahil may permission na,” the undersecretary said. “Kahapon hindi 56, 69 ang willing tumawid kahapon kasama doon, meron pang 12 spouses, so 81," he also said. "Sixty-nine people out of the potential 76, that is a good percentage. Yung anim na naiwan out of the original 46, handa na rin sila tumawid.” he added.
Source: cnnphilippines.com
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