Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said that they expect more Filipinos to start availing of the government’s repatriation program after it raised crisis alert level 3 in Israel, with the first batch of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) expected to arrive early next week.

Alert level 3 in Iran was also raised by the DFA on Friday, but DFA Assistant Secretary Robert Ferrer of the Office of Migration Affairs said that there are only a handful—about nine OFWs—who will be leaving Iran since most of the 1,180 Filipinos there are Iranian residents.

“Next week we'll start the first batch, we have 26 Filipinos going home. There are now 191, so paakyat nang paakyat ang gustong umuwi (the number of those who want to come home keeps on increasing). So it's going on. Still, there are 30,000, and the vast majority want to leave,” he shared during the Quezon City media forum on Saturday, June 21.

The 26 Filipinos would comprise the first batch of repatriates from Israel because they were the ones with valid documentation who initially confirmed their interest to return to the country.

The DFA official also assured that the Philippine government will shoulder the expenses for the repatriation of the Filipinos, so long as they have the proper documents, such as their passports, to leave the country.

The Filipinos in Israel would have to leave through Jordan by crossing the King Hussein Border and then taking a flight from Amman to Manila.

“Israel is easier through Jordan,” De Vega said, adding that this was the same route taken by the 21 Philippine government officials who were initially stranded in Israel when the conflict broke out last week.

The officials, who were in Israel for a study program, arrived in Manila on Saturday morning by taking a flight from Amman to Manila via Dubai.

“But we'll follow the same campaign to Amman. By the way, we didn't spend for that, we didn't use our assistance to nationals, because they were Israeli guests,” he added.

The official clarified why the government decided to raise voluntary repatriation in Israel rather than alert level 4 or mandatory repatriation when there had been continuous exchange of missile attacks between Israel and Iran in the past week.

“And, you know, for us, some of you may be wondering, I've seen social media. How can it not be mandatory? Mandatory repatriation is used for war zones, meaning untenable situations, where no Filipino should be detained because you can't get there. And a great example is Gaza,” he explained, referring to war-torn Gaza, wherein Israel had decimated militant group Hamas.

The escalating violence between Israel and Iran started on June 13 when Israel missiles hit Iran’s nuclear site, causing Iran to retaliate with its own airstrikes on Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

As of the latest report, Israeli strikes have killed 639 people in Iran since the ambush began, while 2,500 have been wounded. In Israel, Iran’s retaliatory strikes have killed 24 people.