Palace monitoring situation in Syria

alaca ang yesterday said it is closely monitoring the situation in ar torn yria, as resident ama sought the ap proval of the Congress to attac the Ara country that has een suspected of using chemical eapons.

In her regular ee end intervie over government run radio station dzRB, deputy presidential spo esperson A igail Valte also said that the government has managed to repatriate over , overseas Filipino or ers ( F s) from yria.

e ill continue to facilitate the re patriation of our citi ens ho are there in yria, she added.

o far, no F has een reported illed or hurt in the armed conflict.

Valte said the epartment of Foreign Affairs ( FA) gave no such list. he last report they gave us as the additional F s ho arrived from yria.

he refused to comment, ho ever, on esca lating tensions, saying it is still hypothetical.

e don t ant to get into that yet. ur main concern is to get our people home from there, as has een our concern from day one, from the time e increased our alert level to mandatory evacuation or re patriation, Valte stressed.

he FA also continued to appeal to nearly , F s ho remain in yria to avail of the government s mandatory repatriation program.

ur priority is to ring our people in yria out of harm s ay. e continue to urge our F s to avail of our mandatory repatriation program in that country, FA spo esman aul ernande said in a te t message to The STAR.

ast ee , the FA sent Foreign Affairs ndersecretary afael eguis to yria to lead the government s evacuation of remaining Filipinos there.

ernande said there as no information yet on hen resident Aquino ould call for a meeting of the Ca inet security cluster, hich includes Foreign Affairs ecretary Al ert del osario as one of its mem ers.

ama on aturday said he ould as the Congress to authori e military ac tion against yria. he Congress is set to resume on ept. .

ashington said it ould launch mis sile attac s on yria to send a message of criticism against the violent attac s on the re els y yrian government forces. It as not intended to as yrian resident ashar al Assad to step do n from po er.

he government also said it has evidence that , people ere illed in chemical attac s y the yrian army last Aug. .