Malacañang said the Philippine government is doing all it can to ensure the safety of Filipino nationals in Syria amid the airstrikes in the Middle Eastern country.
“Sa ngayon po, ang number one na binibigyan ng importansya ay ‘yung safety ng ating mga mamamayan na nasa Syria, dahil meron po tayong mahigit kumulang isang libong mga kababayan doon sa Syria,” Roque stated.
The Palace official said the government would soon issue a policy statement on the US-led air strikes in Syria.
He clarified, however, that the administration’s priority right now is to secure all Filipinos residing in the war-torn nation.
“We are a member of the United Nations. We know the provisions of Chapter Seven of the United Nations. There is a development on the responsibility to protect. But right now, it’s the safety of our citizens that’s the primordial importance,” Roque stressed.
He said that there are around 1,000 Filipinos in Syria.
Roque said that President Rodrigo Duterte had recently received a letter from Russian President Putin himself, through Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev, that also touched on the Syrian air strikes.
-Concerns about air strikes in Syria –
Concerns had been aired that new Western air strikes in Syria would provoke “chaos” in international relations.
Russian President Putin himself told his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani this concern on Sunday.
Speaking to Rouhani by telephone the day after US-led strikes on suspected chemical weapons facilities, Putin said “if such actions, carried out in violation of the United Nations Charter, are repeated, that would inevitably provoke chaos in international relations,” according to a statement from the Kremlin.
The two leaders “found that this illegal action seriously damaged the prospects of a political settlement in Syria,” the statement said.
The United States, France and Britain on Saturday launched strikes against Bashar al-Assad’s government a week after an alleged chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma, just east of the capital Damascus.
Putin denounced on Saturday “with the utmost firmness” the strikes which he described as “an act of aggression against a sovereign state which is at the forefront of the fight against terrorism”.
(with a report from Agence France-Presse)
