Filipino injured in Tripoli attack wants to go home —official

The Filipino wounded in the recent barrage of rockets in the embattled Libyan capital of Tripoli has expressed willingness to go back to the Philippines, Embassy Charge d'Affaires Elmer Cato said Thursday.

Cato identified the Filipino as Rolando Torres, a Nueva Ecija native, who sustained a wound in his forehead.

“This morning, @PhinLibya came to get our kababayan who narrowly survived the barrage of rockets that struck Tripoli last night. Rolando Torres had witnessed previous fighting in Libya but he said last night was different. He now wants to go home. @teddyboylocsin @DFAPHL,” Cato said via Twitter.

This morning, @PhinLibya came to get our kababayan who narrowly survived the barrage of rockets that struck Tripoli last night. Rolando Torres had witnessed previous fighting in Libya but he said last night was different. He now wants to go home. @teddyboylocsin @DFAPHL pic.twitter.com/R7vFVCoMrn

— Elmer G Cato (@elmer_cato) April 17, 2019

In a post on Facebook, Cato said they met with Torres Wednesday morning, hours after Tripoli was attacked late Tuesday night.

He said Torres has been working in the Libyan capital for 13 years and had seen more violent attacks.

“Rolando has been working in Tripoli since 2006 and had seen the Libyan capital at its most violent but the attack last night that wounded the Nueva Ecija native in the forehead was different,” he said.

Earlier report said Torres lives in a house hit by a rocket.

The Philippine government on April 8 raised crisis alert level 3 in Libya, urging Filipino workers there to avail of voluntary repatriation due to security concerns. Crisis level 3 or voluntary repatriation phase is imposed by the Philippine government on countries with deteriorating security condition.

Aside from issuing advisories and constant online engagement with the estimated 1,000 Filipinos in the Libyan capital, Cato said the embassy has been reaching out to Filipinos in churches, hospitals, offices and even houses to convince them to consider getting themselves repatriated.

Cato earlier said 19 Filipinos, aside from Torres. have expressed their desire to be repatriated while another 49 were evacuated by their employers to safe locations in areas outside the scene of heavy fighting since last week. —Amita O. Legaspi/KBK, GMA News