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Friday, November 04, 2004
Crisis team to handle Pinoy kidnapping in Iraq
DAVAO CITY -- A Dabawenyo who was among those abducted in Baghdad Monday appeared to have entered Iraq without proper documentation, said the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) in Region 11 Wednesday.
Nevertheless, government refused Wednesday to rule out negotiating with Roberto "Bobby" Tarongoy's hostage takers, leaving open the possibility it would take its own steps to try and save him.
The Philippines was reportedly getting signals from US authorities in Iraq that Manila should not seek to independently negotiate for Tarongoy's release, but should join a collective effort with other countries, said a Filipino diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Asked repeatedly if the Philippines would follow Washington's policy of not negotiating with kidnappers in Tarongoy's case, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo replied: "We will do our best."
"We have to work with our friends, and I think that is the best way of effecting a release and I'm talking of friends in the Muslim world, I'm talking of friends in the United Nations and I'm talking of friends in the world," Romulo said.
Also on Wednesday, President Arroyo ordered the reactivation of the Middle East response team to work for the release of Tarongoy, a 31-year-old accountant working for a Saudi Arabian company catering food to American troops.
No record
POEA 11 Director Francisco Domingo said in Davao City they have no record of a Roberto Tarongoy leaving the country for employment in the Middle East and this could only mean that his employment papers did not pass through the agency.
Domingo told reporters Tuesday he has contacted Tarongoy's employment agency, JS Contractor, and the company said they have an applicant by this name.
The company said however they did not process the application following a ban on the deployment of laborers to Iraq.
JS Contractor has a branch in Davao City.
He said that if they could not find Tarongoy's papers in POEA's records, the agency would be unable to help him.
Only the Overseas Workers and Welfare Administration (Owwa) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) could help him, he added.
Tarongoy, 31, married, an accountancy graduate of the University of Mindanao, and resident of Panorama Homes in Buhangin, Davao City, has been working as an accountant at the Saudi Arabian Trading Company in Baghdad, Iraq for four months now.
He is said to be among the last overseas foreign workers to have flown to Iraq in July 2004 before government banned Filipinos from going there following Filipino driver Angelo dela Cruz's abduction.
Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said POEA and Owwa do not have records of Tarongoy because he left the country using a business visa or a visitor's visa to Doha, Qatar.
She said they learned that Tarongoy left the country in July 23 for Bangkok and from there proceeded to Baghdad.
Green zone
Sto. Tomas added that Tarongoy was working outside the US bases in Iraq but close to the so-called green zone, which was supposed to be relatively safe.
Tarongoy's abduction shows that the Iraq situation has not yet improved and that the ban on the deployment of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to Iraq would have to remain in effect until after the New Year, she added.
About 800 undocumented OFWs are believed to be in Iraq and 500 of them were able to found employment in the two US military camps, namely, Camp Victory and Anaconda.
There are an estimated 5,000 OFWs in Iraq now with about 4,200 documented.
Sto. Tomas expressed fears that Tarongoy may not be the last Filipino to end up as hostage since there are others like him who have violated the government ban on worker deployment to Iraq.
Gunmen stormed Monday a compound of the Saudi company in Baghdad that Tarongoy was working for, abducting him and five other persons, including an American, a Nepalese, and three Iraqis after a bloody gun battle that left an Iraqi guard and one of the attackers dead.
The two Iraqi guards were later released unharmed.
Tarongoy left his home in Davao City in June, telling his wife he was going to look for a job in Manila--and also try to find work abroad.
She was surprised when he called from Baghdad despite a government ban on Filipino workers in Iraq, imposed shortly after Iraqi insurgents abducted the truck driver in July.
Prayers needed
"He is a very good husband, he is a very good man. Please have mercy on him," Tarongoy's wife Grace said, as she appealed for his release.
"I cannot imagine how he is coping with that situation...I know he is praying now. That is his only weapon."
Tarongoy's mother Isabelita said his job for a Saudi Arabian company was his first contract abroad.
She said the news of her son's abduction hit them by surprise as they just talked to him on October 31.
Isabelita said Tarongoy told them he could hear explosions but that it was normal there.
He also told them not to worry because they were well guarded there.
For now, Isabelita is asking all Dabawenyos to pray for her son and for government to exert all efforts to secure her son's safe release.
Grace left for Manila Wednesday morning, accompanied by Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza.
Isabelita said she has been told by Tarongoy's wife not to give out interviews.
The Owwa regional office here was likewise asked to keep mum on Tarongoy's plight.
(November 4, 2004 issue)
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