The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has confirmed that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Syria are safe despite Syrian rebels taking over key cities, including the capital, Damascus.

“So far, based on the monitoring, as of Sunday, all OFWs in Syria are safe and well,” Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said.

The DFA has urged Filipinos in Syria to stay in close contact with the Philippine embassy.

“We are concerned about the situation of the Filipinos in Syria and advised them to take the necessary precautions and to remain in touch with the Philippine embassy in Damascus,” the DFA said.

On Monday, 9 December, Chargé d’Affaires John Reyes reported that the embassy is temporarily housing 10 Filipinos who sought refuge on Sunday due to the unrest and the anxiety caused by the situation.

“They asked for our help to temporarily stay here at the embassy, and we welcomed them,” he said.

Reyes said there are currently 703 Filipinos in Syria, most of them household workers in Damascus, while others have Syrian spouses. None have asked to be evacuated.

Reyes said that as of Monday, the situation in Damascus had calmed down.

Department of Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Cacdac said government decisions regarding the situation in Syria would be guided by the DFA.

On Sunday, Syrian rebels declared on state television that they had ousted President Bashar al-Assad, marking the end of his family’s 50-year dynasty.

Reports indicated that Assad had fled Damascus and had gone into exile in Russia, with rebels claiming they entered the capital without resistance from the Syrian army.

Russian news agencies said Assad and his family were in Moscow, while the rebels on Monday searched the Syrian capital’s notorious Sednaya prison for hidden underground cells holding detainees in secret.

Assad’s government fell 11 days after the rebels began a surprise advance, more than 13 years after Assad’s crackdown on anti-government protests ignited Syria’s civil war — which had become largely dormant until the rebel push.

“This victory, my brothers, is historic for the region,” Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS) that spearheaded the advance, said in an address at the landmark Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

US President Joe Biden said Assad should be “held accountable” but called the nation’s political upheaval a “historic opportunity” for Syrians to rebuild their country.

Residents cheered in the streets as the rebel factions heralded the departure of the “tyrant” Assad, saying: “We declare the city of Damascus free.”

Celebratory gunfire exploded along with shouts of “Syria is ours and not the Assad family’s.”

The rebel factions on Telegram proclaimed an end to “50 years of oppression under Baath rule, and 13 years of crimes and tyranny and displacement.”