An overseas Filipino worker shared on Monday his experience witnessing the rocket attack launched by Hamas terrorists on Israel.
Jay Meniado, a hotel worker and a resident of Isabela, said that it was his first time to hear a siren in Israel and was confused at first about what was happening.
"I was seven months [into] working as a hotel worker and then all of a sudden, we heard a loud siren. It was my first time to hear an alarm that loud. Me and my friends in the flat got nervous," Meniado said.
"When the siren alarmed for the third time, we were told to take our things with us and find a bomb shelter. We were lucky that the flat that we were residing was not hit by a missile. While running, I met an old Israeli who said it was safe to hide under the stairs. I went under the stairs to hide and my companions followed me," he recalled.
The bombing so traumatized him, said Meniado, that even the sound of helicopter or a soldier's vehicle would make him panic now.
"I was traumatized. Now I get easily nervous. When I went back to work, I started to panic. I couldn't sleep well anymore because I was thinking what if a missile landed on our place while I was asleep," he lamented.
Department of Migrant Workers Officer-in-Charge Hans Leo Cacdac, together with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Foreign Affairs and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, received the fourth batch of repatriates from Israel, among them Meniado.
Cacdac confirmed that the agencies received a total of 60 OFWs including two infants. Aabout 32 of the repatriates were hotel workers while 28 were caregivers.