Filipinos take refuge in Tripoli cathedral

FILIPINOS trapped in the violent upheaval in Libya have taken refuge inside the cathedral of the Apostolic Vicariate of Tripoli, a missionary priest said.

Franciscan priest Hermilo Vilason said a number of Filipinos have camped inside the church since Monday and are refusing to go outside for fear of their safety.

Father Vilason, chaplain to Filipino migrants in Libya, told the Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) in a message that they wake up daily to the sound of gunfire.

“At times sporadic and at times continuous,” Father Vilason said in a communiqué to Father Edwin Corros, ECMI’s executive secretary.

The priest said they also hear helicopters overhead but cannot see it.

“Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli told us to stay inside the church rather than be put in danger outside,” Father Vilason said.

The priest said the Filipinos have nowhere to go because only two of the temporary residents of the church speak Arabic. He is optimistic, however, that they will be safe inside the church.

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