MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 3, 2014) – The Philippines has advised Filipinos in Ukraine to stay calm as tension is running high between the former Soviet republic and Russia.
Filipino Labor chief Rosalinda Baldoz told Filipinos working in Ukraine to stay home not make any unnecessary visit or detours to public places where marches or protests are being held.
Baldoz issued the advice after the Eastern European country that borders Russia on the east and northeast was rocked by civil disturbance in recent weeks that led to a new government.
Citing official Philippine records, she said only 175 Filipino workers are deployed in Ukraine since 2012 and most of them are administrative and managerial workers.
Baldoz said they are in close contact with the Department of Foreign affairs which is now monitoring the situation in Ukraine.
The Department of Foreign Affairs also strongly advised all Filipinos in Ukraine to communicate with the Philippine Embassy in Moscow – since there is no embassy in Kiev – and inform officials of their whereabouts and their current condition or if they wanted to return home.
It encouraged Filipinos to contact their families in the Philippines and apprise them of their situation.
Russia has intruded into Crimea in Ukraine and deployed hundreds of troops after the region’s newly-installed leader Sergei Aksyonov sought help from President Vladimir Putin to protect them from the central government.
Aksyonov accused Kiev of appointing a new top police officer in the Black Sea peninsula without coordinating with his regional government. The Russian parliament voted to send troops to Crimea to protect its largely ethnic Russian population.
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