With the escalation of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has expressed its readiness to provide social protection and other form of assistance to overseas Filipinos (OFs) and their children should a mandatory repatriation is called by the Philippine government.

According to Director Edwin Morata of the DSWD’s Protective Services Bureau-Crisis Intervention Unit (PSB-CIU), the agency has teams of social workers and prepared packages of interventions that can immediately be extended to OFs who will be repatriated to Manila.

“Ready po ang DSWD. Pag nakatanggap po ng direktiba mula sa ating Pangulo [Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.,], at of course, sinuportahan po ng ating Kalihim [Rex Gatchalian], handa po ang ating team for that,” Director Morata told reporters at the DSWD Thursday Media Forum on June 19.

The CIU director pointed that the DSWD’s programs and interventions that the OFs and their families may avail include medical, food, transportation, legal, funeral, and livelihood assistance; as well as mental health and psychosocial support.

In a related development, the DSWD is also coordinating with the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) in its series of “Serbisyo Caravan” initiatives to help Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to access government services.

On June 8, the OFW Serbisyo Caravan went to Hong Kong wherein 544 different services of the Department were availed by at least 154 OFWs.(AKDL)