As a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East hangs in the balance, the government was urged yesterday to seize the moment and prepare contingency measures, as a collapse of the truce could plunge more than two million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) into an even worse situation.

Former Interior and Local Government Secretary Rafael Alunan III warned that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has placed the large OFW population in the Gulf at risk.

He cautioned that if the situation in Iran deteriorates into a prolonged war of attrition, mirroring past US misadventures in the region, the Philippines would face two immediate crises — the urgent evacuation of OFWs to safer locations and the mass repatriation of workers to the Philippines.

The evacuation of OFWs would necessitate a search for new employment abroad for them, while their repatriation would pose a problem as jobs in the Philippines are scarce.

“The ceasefire agreement is so fragile and may not hold,” Alunan said, noting that both sides were already accusing each other of violations.

Drawing from his experience dealing with domestic secessionists and insurgents when he headed the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Alunan described ceasefires as temporary pauses rather than genuine peace efforts.

“Sincerity is always at a deficit,” he said. “Ceasefires are used mainly to catch one’s breath, evaluate lessons learned, rearm, regroup, reposition. In short, they are usually broken due to bad faith.”