Palace,
DFA differ on OFW deaths in Iraq MALACAÑANG and the Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday issued conflicting reports on the number of Filipinos who died in a mortar attack on a US base in Iraq.
Quoting a report reaching the Palace, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said another Filipino died from the explosion in Camp Anaconda. "There was a subsequent report that there are already two (fatalities)," Bunye told a press briefing as he corrected a Palace statement on Wednesday that four Filipinos were killed in the attack. "We got the initial report yesterday (Wednesday) at around 11a.m. and we made the statement based on the initial report," said Bunye. Bunye added that the earlier bulletin "was subsequently corrected at 6 p.m. (Wednesday) stating that there was only one fatality." Asked how many were wounded in the incident, Bunye replied, "I don't have the exact number but we are glad it's much less than what was earlier reported." In a separate news conference, acting DFA Secretary Jose Brillantes said there was only one fatality and identified the victim as Raymond Natividad, 25, single of Mabalacat town in Pampanga province. "Isa lang talaga (There is really only one) according to our charges d' affaires, Eric Endaya. We only release verified, confirmed, and accurate reports," Brillantes said. Brillantes said Natividad was the second Filipino casualty in post-war Iraq after truck driver Rodrigo Reyes. Reports said he was killed in an ambush early May. He said three other Filipinos were slightly injured and one so "seriously wounded" that he is "undergoing surgical operation in a hospital in Baghdad." Brillantes refused to name the injured as their next of kin in the Philippines have not been informed. Despite the latest casualty, Bunye said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has not ordered the evacuation of other Filipino workers in Iraq as she waits for the recommendations of Ambassador Roy Cimatu and his team who are in Iraq assessing the situation. Brillantes said other members of Cimatu's team were DFA Undersecretary Rafael Seguis and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration director Ramon Tionloc "As of this morning, the Iraq team was assessing the situation and the President, as you will note in her earlier statement, if necessary and if called for then the evacuation will be ordered," Bunye said. But Bunye clarified that the evacuation would only apply to the Filipino workers and not to the humanitarian peacekeeping force. Unless there are specific instructions affecting the humanitarian contingent, Bunye said the Philippine team would stay in the war-torn region. "And just in case an evacuation of the Filipinos is warranted, then the Filipino humanitarian contingent would be the very last to go," he stressed. Brillantes admitted the difficulty in monitoring all the Filipinos entering Iraq even with a government ban on their deployment there. He said employers of Filipinos in the nearby countries of Kuwait, Jordan, and even Saudi Arabia were sending them to Iraq. "Building contractors recognize the skills and talent of Filipinos. There is a preference for Filipinos," he explained. At the same time, two non-governmental organizations are denouncing the government for keeping Filipinos in Iraq and not ordering their repatriation. Migrante spokesman Vince Borneo "decry the stubborn standoff of the government," while Akbayan said it would picket the DFA offices tomorrow, Friday, "to renounce the acts of violence in Iraq that resulted in the death of Filipinos." Meanwhile, Senator Manuel Villar urged the government to take initiatives to help Filipino workers and the peacekeeping mission leave the war-torn country. Villar, head of the Senate foreign relations committee, said he heard reports that several Filipinos want to go home for fear of their safety, but have found it difficult to do so because their foreign employers require replacements. He added that a number of Filipinos who left their jobs in Iraq were also charged with termination of their contracts. "The government should assess the situation in Iraq and again if necessary, transfer or relocate Filipinos to safer areas," he said in a statement. At the same time, the senator reiterated his call for the President to reconsider her decision to keep the Filipino peacekeeping force in Iraq. Villar said the government should intervene in asking the employers of these Filipino workers to have them reassigned to other countries, if they do not want to go home. He added Filipino workers in Iraq could seek repatriation from recruitment agencies as provided under the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act. "The
government may also consider paying the expenses in advance so OFWs (overseas
Filipino workers) may immediately be repatriated," he said. From: http://www.inq7.net/brk/2004/may/13/brkofw_2-1.htm
|