Out of Beirut, Stranded in Buhangin

A Filipino-Lebanese family in Davao tries to pick up the pieces of a life torn apart by the war in Lebanon.

By Germelina A. Lacorte
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY — All they really want right now is for the war to stop so that they can go back home and continue life where they left off.

Anthony Ballouz, 18, and his brother, Ronald, 16, express this wish as they watch footages of downtown Beirut on television in their mother�s home in Buhangin here, where they sought refuge from the war that broke out between Israeli troops and the Hezbollah guerillas in the southern part of Lebanon.

The four Ballouz brothers were among the Filipino Lebanese children whose families have been torn apart because of the war. Their father, George Ballouz, a Lebanese businessman, had to stay behind as the three brothers were ferried out of Beirut to take a flight aboard the Jordanian Aviation plane from Syria to follow their mother and youngest brother in Davao. They were among the second batch of Filipinos arranged by the Philippine embassy to be brought to the Philippines early last week.

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