Fr. Agustin “Gestie” Advincula, CM was the voice heard over the airwaves, urging government action on the plight of Filipinos trapped in the war zone. His was
also the soothing voice providing reassurance to anxious mothers, spouses and children of the country’s modern heroes.
HE is otherwise known as the lone Filipino priest in Lebanon, the missionary who provided immediate shelter to thousands of overseas Filipino workers at the outbreak of a bombing war between Israel and the Hezbollah.
Overnight, the Catholic Church of the Miraculous Medal in West Beirut became an emergency evacuation site for a constant stream of fleeing OFWs, part of the 34,000 documented workers in this part of the world.
Fr. Agustin “Gestie” Advincula was the voice heard over the airwaves, urging government action on the plight of Filipinos trapped in the war zone. His was
also the soothing voice providing reassurance to anxious mothers, spouses and children of the country’s modern heroes.
At the outbreak of the war in Beirut, Fr. Gestie saw in the chaos an opportunity to save some runaway Filipino maids, bringing 90 of them to his church for repatriation. They joined the first batch of 250 OFWs who traveled the circuitous route by bus, from Beirut to Damascus, before which Fr. Gestie had scrounged around for donations to provide food for their trip. On July 29, the third week of the conflict, a long distance call found this priest on the road with Philippine Embassy personnel four hours southward of Beirut, trying to convince some Lebanese employers to release their Filipino domestic helpers from their contracts so they could go home. The employers, with whom he has maintained a cordial relationship, would only release the women to a man of the cloth. In the Hezbollah territory of Sidon, the priest’s group was able to rescue a Filipino mother married to a Muslim Lebanese and her four children. Another time, Fr. Gestie had to beg off from a phone interview because he had to run off and get more cartons that could be converted into sleeping mats for the expected arrival of more OFWs.
