Lacson Casim was always there to assist me when I was serving as Chargè d’Affaires and Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Philippines in Libya. Lucky, as he is popularly known among Filipinos and Libyans alike, is one of four Filipinos who were locally hired in Libya to support our diplomats assigned there.

Lucky is the most senior among our local staff, having been with us the longest. A former scholar in Benghazi, Lucky, who is a Maranao, joined the Embassy during the term of Ambassador Madki Alonto in 1992.

Like those who served in Tripoli before me, among them Ambassadors Bayani Mangibin and Oscar Orcine and CDAs Adelio Cruz and Mardomel Melicor, I had Lucky as my interpreter, guide, and adviser. He was the one who would accompany me in most of my meetings with Libyan officials in Tripoli and in Benghazi. He gave very sound advice.

When the Third Libyan Civil War broke out, Lucky, Doc Munir Sarail, and Mokadil Tidto helped us understand what would evolved into a very complicated situation that placed hundreds of our kababayan in peril. Because of the insights they shared with us, we were able to formulate and reformulate our contingency plans that allowed the Embassy to lead many of our people out of harm’s way and spare many more from Crisis Alert Level IV restrictions.

During the civil war and the coronavirus pandemic that followed, Lucky, Doc Munir, and Mok, along with our locally hired driver, Arvin Cadiente, played a critical role in the repatriation of around 300 distressed kababayan, many of whom they escorted across the dangerous 12-hour journey by land from Tripoli to Tunis. They were also there with us in providing food and Emergency assistance to hundreds more.

Altogether, Lucky, Doc Munir, Mok, and Arvin saved thousands of Filipinos from the seemingly endless cycle of violence and counterviolence that have been gripping Libya since the February Revolution that ousted Muamar Gaddafi in 2011.

It was for this reason that I nominated all four of them not once but twice for the Gawad Mabini for the grave risks they took in the service of our country and our people. Their courage and sacrifice could not be matched by any of us in the Foreign Service.

During my two-year tour of duty in Libya, Lucky was also the one tasked to take care of deceased kababayan. I was there in the morgue with him on several occassions to seal the coffins containing the remains of kababayan before we send them to loved ones waiting for them back home. He was the one who handled the repatriation of our first COVID victim. Lucky did this task well.

One mission I would always remember was the rescue of the nurses at Oya Clinic. It took place on 2 January 2020, almost nine months into the Third Libyan Civil War. By then, the Libyan National Army (LNA) had already breached the defensive lines of the Government of National Accord (GNA) in the outskirts of Tripoli and were just a few kilometers from the center of the capital. To push enemy forces back, the LNA kept raining artillery fire on GNA forward positions. We knew it was a matter of time before artillery shells would hit Salahuddin District where a number of Filipino nurses were staying.

We knew we had to extract the nurses and we did with the help of Lucky. He knew the area well and helped us draw the rescue plan, particularly the route going in and out of the danger zone. We later went in with Lucky among those in the lead. This, despite the firm objections of Maj. Gen. Mario Chan, our security adviser, who said the area will be subjected to an artillery strike anytime. Lucky rose to the occasion by helping us convince the nurses to go with us. He was among those who packed their belongings and led our kababayan to our waiting vehicles.

We were there on the ground for about 20 minutes which was also time spent praying that no artillery shells fall while we were there waiting. It was not a good day for us to die that day and the nurses and the rest of us safely made it back to the Embassy less than an hour later. But General Chan would still be proven right as the clinic where we rescued the nurses got struck by artillery a day or two later.

Our last mission together was shortly before I ended my term in Tripoli in 2021. Lucky was in Derna with me when we finally located the graves of four missing Filipino oil workers who were kidnapped and executed by ISIS militants in 2015. Months before that, Lucky accompanied me to Benghazi where he and Filipino Community leader Doris Ladera helped me secure the assistance of the Libyan National Army (LNA) in looking for the graves of our four missing kababayan.

On Sunday afternoon, I was told Lucky was rushed to the UERM in Manila in critical condition due to a previously undetected issue with his colon. He was intubated and placed intensive care.

I immediately asked the hundreds of kababayan who Lucky led out of the fighting in Tripoli, Benghazi, and other parts of Libya and reunited with their families back home as well as those who were still in Libya who he has assisted along with our colleagues in the Foreign Service and attached agencies who have served with him to join us in praying that he pulls through.

Lucky was not able to survive his ordeal and breathed his last a few hours later.

Milan, 20 August 2023