EDITORIAL - In harm’s way

Thanks to intervention by US naval forces, another hijacking meant to show support for Hamas was foiled. Two of the rescued crew of the chemical tanker M/V Central Park are Filipinos. Five of the hijackers have been taken into custody by the US Navy.

The pirates had boarded the Liberian-flagged tanker, which is owned by an Israeli businessman, as it was transiting the Gulf of Aden on Sunday. The US Navy received a distress call from the Central Park and responded. The conflict did not end there: the US Navy reported that in the early hours of Monday, two ballistic missiles were fired from areas in Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels toward the tanker and US guided-missile destroyer USS Mason. Fortunately, the missiles missed their targets and landed in the sea.

The Houthis are the same rebels who hijacked the Bahamas-flagged commercial ship Galaxy Leader last week and brought it to Yemen together with the crewmembers including 17 Filipinos. Hijackings targeting Israeli-owned vessels have intensified amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Filipino sailors, who are part of the crew of almost every commercial vessel on the planet, are in harm’s way.

Apart from rescuing Filipinos held hostage by Hamas and its supporters in other countries, the government must also provide mental health support to the victims. Filipino worker Jimmy Pacheco, who was among the hostages freed by Hamas during the four-day pause in the fighting, is reportedly suffering from trauma after 49 days of captivity in besieged Gaza. This type of trauma could last much longer than the period of captivity.

The 17 Filipinos on the Galaxy Leader remain in captivity along with the rest of the crew – collateral damage, as one lawmaker put it, in the Israel-Hamas conflict. While Philippine officials have received word that the 17 are safe, there is no assurance that they will not suffer the same psychological trauma as the overseas Filipino worker who was freed by Hamas. Their plight, like those of the crew of the tanker Central Park, highlights the costs of the OFW phenomenon, which arises from the lack of better opportunities in their own country.