The Department of Foreign Affairs raised Alert Level 2 for Filipinos in Sri Lanka on Saturday due to the security situation in that country but clarified that there is no evacuation plan yet.
Under Alert Level 2, there will be no new deployment of overseas Filipino workers to Sri Lanka, and only those with existing employment contracts are allowed to return to the country, the DFA said.
“The Department, in coordination with the office of the Philippine Honorary Consul General in Colombo, will be providing the needed assistance to Filipinos severely affected by the crisis. The Department would like to emphasize that there are no plans yet to evacuate Filipinos from Sri Lanka at this time,” it said in an advisory.
DFA data showed there are more Deployment…than 500 Filipinos in Sri Lanka.
The department also reminded Filipinos in the conflict-torn country to stay in their residence as much as possible, avoid areas where there are protests, and refrain from joining the mass action for their safety and well-being.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s ousted president did his “utmost” to avoid an economic catastrophe but the coronavirus pandemic derailed his efforts, he said in his resignation letter read out to parliament Saturday.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s brief note, sent from the safety of a safe haven in Singapore, blamed COVID-19 for the financial meltdown that triggered months of protests, culminating in his humiliating escape abroad.
“I have contributed my utmost for the country and in the future too, I will contribute for the country,” Rajapaksa said in the letter, read to MPs by parliament’s Secretary-General Dhammika Dasanayake.
It was not clear whether he was signaling an intention to remain involved in politics from exile.
“It is a matter of personal satisfaction for me that I was able to protect our people from the pandemic despite the economic crisis we were already facing,” Rajapaksa insisted.
The virus claimed more than 16,500 lives and infected over 660,000 in the nation of 22 million, where Rajapaksa refused to institute a lockdown in the initial wave and told doctors: “Don’t panic.”
One of his cabinet ministers said Sri Lanka did not require foreign vaccines and that local remedies from shamans were more than adequate.
Rajapaksa claimed Sri Lanka’s reserves were already low when he took office in November 2019 and the subsequent pandemic devastated the economy.
But critics say the government’s mismanagement was a crucial factor.
Official figures show Sri Lanka had $7.5 billion in foreign exchange reserves when he took over, dropping to just $1 million by the time he quit. The country is officially bankrupt.
Rajapaksa, 73, came to power in 2019 as a strongman leader but was forced out of his official residence a week ago when it was stormed by thousands of protesters.
Parliament is due to elect his permanent successor on Wednesday after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe—also an object of the protesters’ scorn—was sworn in as an interim replacement.