Manila, March 3 -- Sen. Erwin Tulfo on Tuesday said the government is prepared to assist Filipinos in the Middle East, with funds already in place and agencies on standby as 1,416 nationals have requested repatriation.

Tulfo said the Senate earlier augmented the budgets of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in anticipation of possible escalation in the region.

"We added 1.3 billion sa pondo ng DMW... 800 million sa Office of the Secretary at 500 million sa OWWA (We added PHP1.3 billion to the DMW fund... PHP800 million to the Office of the Secretary and PHP500 million to OWWA)," Tulfo said in a press conference.

He dismissed claims that authorities are unprepared.

"Naka-ready...