The DFA said it was also sending more personnel to assist the 20-man staff of the Philippine Embassy in Cairo in ensuring the safety of Filipinos who were mostly based in Cairo and Alexandria.

Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo issued a travel advisory asking Filipino tourists to defer non-essential and non-urgent trips to Egypt until the security situation there had stabilized.

These measures were announced after an interagency Crisis Management Committee meeting. The DFA said it was convened “in line with instructions of President Aquino.”

DFA spokesperson Eduardo Malaya said the department was closely monitoring developments in Egypt. He said the DFA had set up a 24-hour hot line—834-4580—for relatives of Filipinos in Egypt.

Malaya also reported that “no Filipino has been hurt in the ongoing protest actions” in Egypt.

In Cairo, the United States Sunday said it was offering evacuation flights to Europe for US citizens who wish to leave Egypt. It said flights to evacuation points would begin departing Egypt on Monday, describing the evacuation as voluntary.

Turkey planned to dispatch two Turkish Airlines planes to Egypt Sunday to evacuate is citizens, state-run Anatolian news agency quoted embassy officials in Cairo as saying.

European tour operators and airlines have canceled trips to Cairo since protesters took to the streets, dealing a blow to a tourism industry that provides about one in eight jobs in the country.

Witnesses said businesses were also starting to evacuate their staff and saw scenes of chaos at the airport, where many people, including Egyptians, were trying to get flights out of the country.

In the residential area of Cairo, two big buses were parked outside the offices of the Italian oil firm ENI to evacuate families, witnesses said. One foreign employee of the firm said his wife and three children would go but he would stay.

“It’s not an issue during the day, it's at night when we don't know what will happen,” the employee said.

Jerry Esplanada, Phil. Daily Inquirer