Filipinos call and pray for workers in Lebanon

Manila, July 27: Trinidad Cruz waited for hours for a three-minute call to her daughter in Beirut as thousands of Filipino workers fled strife-torn Lebanon by all available means.

Filipinos have crowded Roman Catholic churches to pray for the safety of their relatives and flocked to malls and government offices offering free long-distance calls to Lebanon and Israel.

''I want to check my daughter's condition,'' said Cruz, 60, who had queued for more than four hours at the offices of the Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration (OWWA) in Manila.

''The last time I talked to her, she was crying because she wanted to go back but her employer refused to release her.'' Cruz's daughter, Marissa, left the Philippines six months ago to earn 150 dollar a month as a domestic helper in southern Beirut, one of more than 8 million Filipinos who have gone abroad in search of better prospects and pay.

The last time Cruz talked to her daughter was before Israel began bombarding Hizbollah-controlled areas in southern Lebanon.

''In these times of crisis, we're ready to help by offering free calls,'' said Jones Campos, head of public relations at Globe Telecom Inc., the country's second-largest phone firm.

Campos said Globe set up lines at eight OWWA offices in various places and at 10 malls in the capital and the provinces of Cebu, Davao, Pampanga and Cavite, allowing each person to make a two- to three-minute call.

Smart Telecommunications, Globe's larger rival, opened its own free call centres as thousands of anxious Filipinos sought news about their loved ones in Beirut.

LEAP OF FREEDOM Some of the 30,000 Filipinos in Lebanon have been streaming out since violence escalated last week. Workers, mostly domestic helpers, have escaped from their employers, including some who jumped from apartment buildings.

''I will not go back there,'' Lanie Aguilar, a 24-year-old mother of three, told Reuters after a chartered flight from Damascus brought her and 220 others home late on Tuesday.

''My employer would not let me leave, so I ran away. It was really scary because the building in front of the house I was working in was bombed already three times.'' Liezel Ravina, 23, was thankful to be home after a harrowing experience.

''You cannot sleep because the planes were dropping bombs,'' she said. ''We were afraid we would be the next ones to be hit.'' President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo met the returning Filipinos at a military air base near Manila's international airport. Many, including dozens of men, sobbed as they hugged waiting parents, wives and children.

Nearly 1,000 Filipinos will have come home by the end of the week on flights chartered by the government and relief agencies such as the International Office of Migration, Gilbert Asuque, a spokesman for the foreign affairs department, said.

Reuters