We are a strong people

Background: there are more than 30,000 Filipinos living in Lebanon working as domestic helpers, nurses, doctors and missionaries. Everyone is trying to get out of Beirut and so what does our government do to the "heroes" of the nation? Check this headline from a leading newspaper.

Philippines plea: Please allow Filipinos to hitch ride

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT lacked in ships and aircraft, it tried to make up in letters to foreign countries pleading with them to let Filipinos hitch a ride in their evacuation vessels out of war-battered Lebanon.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) sent a barrage of notes verbales to various embassies -- the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Italy -- that were rushing to pull out their citizens from bombed-out Beirut.

“The problem is, we don’t have ships where our nationals can board, unlike the US and French,” DFA spokesperson Gilberto Asuque said. “We have very limited resources.”