The government yesterday hoisted Alert Level 4 or mandatory evacuation for Filipinos in Libya following the escalation of clashes between warring factions in the North African country.
In a tweet, Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Alert Level 4 is raised within 100 kilometers in and around the capital Tripoli.
The government’s move came following the announcement made by a spokesman for the Libyan National Army who said that its forces are launching an attack “on various fronts” on Tuesday in order to advance towards the heart of the capital.
“Yesterday informed the President that I raised the Alert Level to 4 in Tripoli + 100 kms around. More mortar fire, more Filipinos hurt. AL 4 is mandatory evacuation but we cannot compel – and rightly so. What is mandatory is that DFA stays in Tripoli until last OFW goes – and then it stays,” Locsin said in his social media post.
Also on Tuesday, Locsin “begged” the remaining almost 1,000 overseas Filipino workers in and around Tripoli to evacuate to the Philippine Embassy following the escalation of violence in the capital in the last few weeks.
“Please go to the embassy, I beg you,” Locsin said via his Twitter.
Locsin’s appeal was a departure from his earlier refusal to raise the alert level in Tripoli even when Libyan National Army chief Khalifa Haftar ordered his troops to invade Tripoli on April 4.
“Yes and put us in the line of fire I am not a homo. I don’t dictate choices I just put myself and my people in hazard to respect our people’s choice. No f_____g Filipino is good enough to decide for another,” the country’s top diplomat said in a tweet on April 7.
In a separate tweet on that same day, he said: “You wanna tell that to Filipinos who need to work there and make ends meet. P____g I__. When all hell breaks loose We in the DFA will be in the f_____g line of fire because we are not Yellow.”
On April 8, however, Locsin decided to raise Alert Level 3 (voluntary repatriation phase) after rockets started to fall in and around the Libyan capital.
Since then, the DFA Secretary deleted all his social media posts pertaining to the exchanges about media query on alert levels in Libya, specifically profanity-laden tweets. (Roy Mabasa)
(Roy Mabasa)