MIGRANT WATCH 

On the Hostage Crisis in Iraq:
OFWs in Saudi Call for Troops’ Pullout

Filipino worker Angelo de la Cruz, taken hostage by Iraqi resistance fighters demanding the pullout of Filipino troops from Iraq, now lives by the minute as his captors have threatened to behead him should the Arroyo government not follow suit. But Malacañang appears to be unmoved by his family’s pleas and the mounting public indignation.

By Alexander Martin Remollino
Bulatlat.com  

Angelo de la Cruz struggles to keep a straight face as his hooded captors read a statement demanding the Philippine troops’ pull out from Iraq (top, left) while daughter Joan (top, right) tearfully shows photos of her father. Cause-oriented groups have been holding vigils both nationwide and abroad, like the one at Plaza Miranda, Manila (below right) photographed by Arkibong Bayan

The Saudi Arabia chapter of Migrante International has sent a petition to Malacañang calling for the pullout of Filipino troops from Iraq to save the life of Angelo de la Cruz, held hostage last July 8 by Iraqi resistance fighters claiming to belong to the Iraqi Islamic Army-Khaled bin al-Waleed Corps. The hostage takers have threatened to behead him within 72 hours from the date of the hostage taking if President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo does not order a pullout of Filipino troops from Iraq.

At present there are 51 Filipino soldiers, policemen, and health workers deployed in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led multinational peacekeeping force.

“We deem the personal safety of all OFWs in the Middle East the first and foremost concern of our government,” the Migrante statement read.

“In view of the seriousness of the current situation in Iraq, we believe the lives of the OFWs are at extreme risk particularly our compatriot Angelo de la Cruz, who
is being threatened to be executed in the next few hours.

“The OFW community leaders in Riyadh not only call for the unconditional pullout of Philippine troops from Iraq but also (for the Philippine government) to caution itself against giving out statements that openly support the U.S. occupation in Iraq.”

Filipino community leaders representing 26 organizations signed the petition.

Filipinos at risk

De la Cruz, 46, works as a truck driver for a Saudi Arabian company subcontracted by U.S. military occupation forces. The sole breadwinner of a family with eight children in Mexico, Pampanga, about one and a half hour from Manila, he was abducted in Falluja, a known site of frequent Iraqi guerrilla attacks.

If De la Cruz is beheaded, he would be the third person to be beheaded by Iraqi resistance fighters in retaliation against the U.S. occupation forces and their allies, following American Nick Berg and South Korean Kim Sun-il. The U.S. and South Korean governments had refused to withdraw their troops from Iraq even when the captors of Berg and Kim had explicitly demanded so.

He will, if beheaded, also be the fourth Filipino to be killed in Iraq in the last three months, based on media reports and data from Migrante International. Rodrigo Reyes, Raymond Natividad, and Raul Carlos Flores were all killed in the last three months in attacks by Iraqi resistance fighters.

Also, three Filipino soldiers – Ricnon Carolasan, Sgt. Negsur Betantos, and Navy Cpl. Manuel Cajote – were wounded in a recent attack by Iraqi guerrillas on a convoy in Babil, southern Iraq.

Aside from the Filipino troops, there are at present about 3,000 Filipinos working in “reconstruction” activities in Iraq. Some 80 percent of them work as cooks and technical maintenance personnel in U.S. military bases.

Filipino workers in the Middle East had been in danger ever since the U.S. war on Iraq began on March 20, 2003 because of the Philippine government’s support for it. As early as April last year, there were already reports of Filipinos subjected to hate attacks in the Middle East because they were perceived as also supportive of the U.S. war on Iraq like the Arroyo administration.

In a statement July 8, the Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) cited reports circulating on the Internet that Filipinos are third on the al-Qaeda hit list, next to Americans and British, because of their governments’ complicity in the war on Iraq.

Dr. Robinson Montalba, a convenor of he broad-based Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao (InPeace Mindanao), which also opposes the U.S. war on Iraq, said in a statement on the same date: “Our troops and our country are seen by Iraqis and Arabs as part of the forces abetting the occupation of Iraq.”

The U.S. bombed and invaded Iraq last year allegedly because of its production and maintenance of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and the connections of Saddam Hussein’s government with international terrorist networks. To date, no WMDs have been found in Iraq, and the Bush government has not been able to present proof of Hussein’s supposed international terrorist links.

Deluge of opposition

Amid all these, Malacañang appears to be unfazed. Arroyo has only suspended the deployment of Filipinos to Iraq, and has been quoted by media as saying that she will not order a withdrawal of troops from that country.

Former military chief Roy Cimatu, who is now the Philippines’ special envoy to the Middle East, said he would suggest that the president keep the country’s military contingent in Iraq.

But Arroyo is running into a deluge of public opposition to Philippine military presence in Iraq.

The opposition is coming not only from militant groups like Migrante International, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May First Labor Center), Anakbayan (Nation’s Youth) the League of Filipino Students (LFS), and the Pinag-isang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston or Nationwide Union of Drivers and Operators) which have long been demanding that the Philippine government withdraw support for the war on Iraq, and which are now staging vigils all over the country as well as in Filipino community centers abroad.

Sen. Manny Villar, who chairs the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, was quoted by a daily news website as saying: “Somebody should be held accountable for this. The DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs), perhaps, because they should have anticipated this coming when the hostage taking and beheading in Iraq began.”

Even Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a known supporter of the U.S. war on “terror,” has opposed the presence of Filipino troops on Iraqi soil. He has called for the immediate pullout of the Filipino troops, saying that doing so would not be giving in to “terrorist” demands, “because it was wrong in the first place to send in the troops.”

The militant groups that had long been demanding the withdrawal of Philippine government support for the U.S.-led war on Iraq also have an ally in no less than Judith de la Cruz, a sister of the hostage Filipino worker. “Please pull out,” she said over the radio. “We want to see him alive.” Bulatlat.com

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