IN RUSSIA’s INVASION OF UKRAINE, THE PHILIPPINES’ MAIN CONCERN RIGHT NOW IS SAFETY OF OVER 300 FILIPINO OVERSEAS WORKERS (OFWs)

SAN DIEGO, CA -- The Philippines should open its doors to fleeing Ukrainians as their homeland puts up a firm resistance to Russia’s invasion, Sorsogon Gov. Francis “Chiz” Escudero declared last Monday, 28 February 2022.

“As we bring Filipinos home, we can also open our doors to Ukrainians who need refuge, as former President Manuel Quezon did for the Jews during the Holocaust,” Escudero said in a statement.

The former senator was referring to when Quezon opened the country in 1940 to accommodate up to 10,000 fleeing Jewish refugees at the time when no other nation in the world would take them during the reign of German dictator Adolf Hitler, who rounded up and murdered Jews on concentration camps.

According to the Filipino provincial governor, the Philippines must also remain neutral and align itself with other peace-loving countries making a stance against war and aggression.

“As one of the world’s most dynamic democracies, which have constantly fought to regain its freedoms, the Philippines should help promote peace and the right to selfdetermination of every country in every part of the world,” he added. Escudero then appealed to Filipinos in Ukraine to coordinate with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to ensure their safety.

“I understand that some want to wait for it because they have good jobs and good lives there, but the situation could quickly get serious and we may lose access to you anytime. Just think of your families here,” he reiterated.

Indeed, Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine confronts the world with complex challenges at a time when a lot of things have to be reset in the global order.

I reckon the outcome in Ukraine isn’t likely to ever provide President Joe Biden with what one might calls a “Desert Storm” moment of clear victory that dramatically lifts his public standing; if anything the images from the country are likely to get worse, not better, in the days and weeks ahead. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin may seize Ukraine, but his victory could backfire and further isolate him from the world more than ever. No doubt about it, Ukraine’s agony is a terrible crucible, but it may help America forge stronger bonds among the world’s democracies – and in the process resolve some of the doubts it has opened about “America is back” capacity to lead them all.

Perhaps, too - you my dear folks - are asking the $64,000 Question by now on just exactly what are the facts on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine?

Well, here’s my two cents’ worth on it: Kyiv was established hundreds of years before Moscow came into being. It was a flourishing trading area as it was then strategically located in the old trade routes in the 10th century, at a time Moscow was a cold and lonely backwater.

Even during the time of the Czarists, historians opined, Ukraine and Kyiv had been “irritants” to Russia.

Twenty-eight years ago, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Moscow agreed to recognize Ukraine as a separate state on one condition – Kyiv gave up its nuclear arsenal.

In 1991, the Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from Russia. (For this same reason, the Filipinos’ claim to Sabah has gone stale. Voters there immensely chose Malaysia over the Philippines, a direct citizens’ rebuke of Manila’s assert).

The anti-Russian sentiment in Kyiv is so strong that protests had deposed a pro-Russian president and has been seeking two things: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership and closer ties with the European Union (EU) and the United States. The fresh assault on Ukrainian sovereignty, with the scars of the Crimean annexation still a source of anguish in Kyiv, has pushed Ukrainians farther away from Russia and deeper into the EU/US/NATO axis.

To Putin and his cold calculations, the almost repulsive sense of Kyiv toward Russia does not and should not stand in the way of restoring the glory and the territories of the oncevast Soviet imperium, even if that would trigger the greatest military confrontation since World War II.

Surely, as Russian troops and tanks rolled into major Ukrainian cities, the endgame for Putin’s acts of territorial aggression is something that he himself cannot predict.

The acts of Russian militancy in Ukraine have so far yielded predictable results: cratering stock markets (except for the energy commodities), rising energy prices, intensified threats of inflation and worsening supply chains and the possibility that a full-scale war would cut off the critical food supplies from Ukraine, a major wheat and corn exporter. Moscow’s stock market dropped 45 percent. Long queues for gas and groceries and before ATM machines had been reported across Ukraine. The price of oil has risen to over $100 per barrel.

On the other side of the coin –with the predisposition to look inward and being a minor layer in the $94 trillion global economy – with the old homeland of ours – the Philippinesjust being a densely-populated blip in the consumer confidence – the biggest issue that genuinely confronts our “kababayans” relative to the RussiaUkraine crisis is the evacuation of the over 300 Filipinos in Ukraine.

The plaintive plight of Filipinos caught and still trapped in war-torn Ukraine is by no means the first time for overseas Filipinos to find themselves in civil wars abroad. Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, name any other strife-torn part of the world, and chances are enterprising Filipinos are there.

As Filipinos figure in war after war after war nauseam across the globe, one would assume that Philippine officials must have formulated eons ago a holistic and effective master plan to extricate “kababayans” from harm’s way before they get caught in crossfires in conflagration and conflicts abroad.

But as can be gleaned from Philippine Foreign Affairs

Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola’s morning media interview last Saturday, February 26, an undetermined number of Filipinos still in Ukraine are largely on their own to get out alive from the war-torn country that Russian forces continue to attack.

“We’ve accounted for only 181 Filipino nationals in Ukraine so far. We’re trying to reach out to others. We will assist those who wish to go home. There are others who don’t want to go home, but we’ll still assist them in whatever way we can,” she announced.

“We’ve asked Poland to open a humanitarian corridor for them to get out, and Secretary (Teodoro) Locsin even flew there to assist those who wish to come home,” Arriola noted. But how to get out of Ukraine to reach Poland and nearby neighboring countries’ borders when roads are heavily clogged by vehicles fleeing or escaping from the fighting?

Well, it remains to be seen, if I must say it.

Tensions in Ukraine came to a

T. Reyes

head after Russian forces launched a military operation on Thursday, February 24. The two warring nations may be halfway around the world, but their strife still has an impact on Filipinos, according to an economist.

So, precisely - what does Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means for our “kababayans” back in the beloved old homeland of ours?

“The main concern right now will be where inflation would be headed locally,” Security Bank Assistant Vice President (AVP) and chief economist Robert Dan Roces told CNN Philippines.

He noted that the costs of many agricultural commodities imported by the Philippines - like wheat and soybean – have gone up.

“All these could likely transmit into local prices with the value being transferred towards local consumers,” Roces warned.

He said the situation is currently confined regionally, but its effect on the Philippines and on other economies could become more massive if it gets worse.

“The situation right now remains very fluid. And we can only hope that it doesn’t get any worse. But if it does, I think our authorities, especially our economic managers, remain steadfast in terms of preparing for the worst outcome in terms of pricing,” Roces explained.

He said this may be a difficult situation for the Philippines since it is only starting to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

What the government can do now is to aid this recovery further through monetary and fiscal support, Roces commented.

“Some subsidies in terms of fuel price subsidies, something that they did with much success last year, which actually tamed the inflationary tendencies,” he observed.

“What we have to do at the moment is to watch out for that pass-through effect coming from the conflict. So mostly, it has something to do with price shocks as well. Our inflation can only serve to slow down economic growth, so I think that’s here the support should come from,” Roces added.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continue to further escalate, the Philippine government said last Wednesday, February 3, that its “chief concern” is the safety of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who may be affected by the conflict.

“Our chief and singular concern is to take out of harm’s way our fellow Filipinos in Ukraine and bringing them to the nearest places of safety by the fastest possible way,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. stated.

(FYI: The Department of Foreign Affairs earlier counted over 300 Filipinos living in Ukraine. Interestingly, around 200 Ukrainians are residing in the Republic of the Philippines).

Around 100 Filipino workers in Ukraine are currently seeking help from the Philippine embassy in Poland; Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac spoke Friday, February 25, 2022. “Sa bilang po natin 380, but mayroon pong registration portal na itinayo ang embahada mula sa Poland at isang daan ang nagparehistro doon. On paper, 380 sila doon pero 100 ‘yung (humihingi ng saklolo) ngayon…” Cacdac said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo. (Based on our records, there are 380 of them there that have registered in the portal set up by the embassy in Poland. On paper, there are 380 Filipino workers there but only 100 are seeking help.)

Last Thursday, February 24 Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Jr. said Poland agreed to take in Filipinos from Ukraine even without a visa. Locsin said efforts are underway to repatriate workers who want to return to the Philippines.

The Philippine embassy in Warsaw, Poland, which oversees the situation of Filipinos in Ukraine, earlier sent a consular team to Lviv, a western Ukrainian town close to Poland’s border, on Thursday, February 17, to establish an emergency contact base.

In coordination with the Philippine honorary consulate general in Kyiv, the presence of a consular team

See JESSE REYES on 9