MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines confirmed Saturday it would withdraw its small peacekeeping contingent from Iraq (news - web sites) on Aug. 20, as planned, but it was unclear if the announcement had saved the life of a Filipino hostage being held in Iraq.

51 soldiers compared to 5,000 soldiers or more in the US military

Government officials said truck driver Angelo dela Cruz had been released, but the Arab television station Al-Jazeera said it had received a message from the militants denying that.

Which one is saying the truth?

The Philippine government made no connection between the announcement about its troops and dela Cruz's reported release. But if the release were confirmed, it would appear the statement by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (news - web sites)'s administration had satisfied his captors.


In Baghdad, diplomats were cautious about dela Cruz's fate.


"We're not going to say we have him until we see him," one diplomat said on condition of anonymity.


The Islamic Army of Iraq-Khalid bin al-Waleed Brigade said in a statement carried by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television that it would give the Philippine government 24 hours to ensure its sincerity, but did not elaborate.


It said the Philippines must pull out its troops by July 20, a month before the scheduled withdrawal. Until then, the captors said, dela Cruz would "be treated as a prisoner of war, in accordance with Islamic precepts."


Iraqi militants have repeatedly used terrorist attacks to try to force governments to withdraw from the U.S.-led occupation force.


In March, a series of terrorist bombings on commuter trains in Madrid shortly before national elections was believed to have contributed to a victory by the socialists, who had campaigned on a platform of withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq. New Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero pulled out the troops soon after taking office.


Militants also tried to pressure South Korea (news - web sites) by kidnapping one of its citizens in Iraq and demanding the Asian country call off plans to deploy 3,000 troops beginning in August. South Korea refused, and the captive was beheaded last month.

Anong ba iyong gusto ng mga protesters? I still don't see why in every issue they have to create some problem. To me they are just making everything worst. They should be protesting about the environment and making things better.

The men who snatched dela Cruz near the restive Sunni Triangle city of Fallujah on Wednesday said they would kill him unless Manila pulled out its 51-member force within three days. The deadline was hours away late Saturday, when the Philippine government announced his release.


"While this man is still not in our hands, he will be brought to a hotel in Baghdad, where he will be turned over to our people," said Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas, who was staying with the hostage's family in a hotel at the former Clark Air Base.


"He is in safe hands," added National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales.

Who is conducting this transfer? I don't see that much news involving the American government. Is their a speck of hope of him surviving?


Santo Tomas said Arroyo had called dela Cruz's wife to relay the news. Jubilation broke out at the family home in northern Pampanga province.


"I feel so relieved," said dela Cruz's brother Jessie. "We are very happy. Our village is celebrating."

I would feel so sad for giving them false hope that he is safe.

The withdrawal announcement appeared to be deliberately ambiguous, reflecting the fine line that the Philippines was walking to obtain dela Cruz's release while remaining one of Washington's closest supporters.


It left open the prospect that Philippine troops could return under U.N. auspices, although a high-ranking official said any further deployment would be the subject of government discussions that would start from scratch. Before the kidnapping, the Philippines had been discussing whether to extend the peacekeeping mandate.


"Our humanitarian contingent is scheduled to return on Aug. 20," presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said. "Our future actions shall be guided by the U.N. Security Council decision as embodied in Resolution 1546, which defines the role of the U.N. and its member states in the future of Iraq."

Resolution 1546 covered the recent handover of power to Iraq's interim government. It specifies that Iraq can request "the continued presence of the multinational force and setting out its tasks."

The pullout decision is a symbolic blow to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, but it doesn't affect the more crucial Philippine contingent — the 4,000 or so civilian workers at U.S. camps around Iraq who would be difficult to replace. Arroyo has frozen any further worker deployments.

A former U.S. colony, the Philippines has maintained close ties with Washington even after the closure of military bases here in the early 1990s. With Muslim and communist insurgencies of its own, the poor country has hosted major counterterrorism training for its troops by U.S. forces, and another round is scheduled to start late this month.

Arroyo went to Georgetown University with former President Bill Clinton (news - web sites) and was given a rare White House state dinner by his successor, President Bush (news - web sites). She has been a staunch U.S. ally, drawing the wrath of the leftist groups that helped bring her to power in 2001.

Arab television station Al-Jazeera showed a video Saturday of dela Cruz appealing to his country to give in to his captors' demand, and an appeal by Philippine Muslim leaders for dela Cruz's release.

Mahid Mutilan, vice governor of the Muslim autonomous region in the southern Philippines and an Islamic religious leader, told the insurgents in Arabic that dela Cruz "is a mere truck driver struggling in Iraq ... to feed his poor family here."

Appearing grim-faced, popular movie actor Robin Padilla, who belongs to the Return to Islam Movement, offered to take the place of dela Cruz in Iraq.

I'm just confused is he really saying this??? Gusto nya ata maging santo, but I do admire his courage for saying it.

"Our countrymen are not your enemies," he told the kidnappers. "We are traveling on the same road. Muslims and Christians should live under the light of peace."

malungkot ako. kasama na rin sa mga nalulungkot ay ang buong simbahan. hinihikayat ng ng pari nung sunday na magtirik ng kandila sa labas ng pintuan, mag offer ng dasal para kay angelo cruz, para makita ng mga kapitbahay at para gumaya din sila. for his safety safety, we must pray for him everyday and encourage others to do so. this would be a way better use of our time, than criticizing the government. we must also pray that God may touch the hearts of the abductors, may their minds be enligthened, and may love and repentance overwhelms them. i remember a passage from the bible, if two men are praying God is listening. if there are three or more praying in his most holy name, God is in the middle of them.

It seems all we can do right now is pray. It's a tough choice for the president. There is no guarantee that we'll even recover De la Cruz alive even if we pull out our troops. Furthermore, we have to consider the precedent it would make for the terrorists in our own country.

I was watching the news and they said that if the government would give in to the demands it would only grow worst in the long run. Saying that it is not a wise idea to give in to the demands of hostage-takers, because this would encourage the terrorists to continue these practices.

Also the kidnappers had extended an execution deadline for De la Cruz to Monday night. They then said they had moved him "to the place of implementing the punishment." Just to ask you folks which path should we take to save a life <which is the right thing> or compromise more innocent lives in the future? < for the greater cause>

nakakapanlumo na nasa ganitong sitwasyon ngayon ang bansa natin pero kung noon pa kasi di na tayo nakisawsaw pa sa giyera ni bush laban kay saddam, di wala tayong ganitong problema ngayon kasi naman eh, bakit ba ang hilig nating magpalakas sa mga amerikano...

i'm torn. parang gusto ko na ayokong mailigtas si angelo. pag umoo tayo sa demands ng mga kidnapper, kukunsintihin lang natin sila. pag hindi naman tayo pumayag, kawawa naman yung iba nating kababayan sa iraq...

kasi naman...

I watched Jay Leno last night and he made a couple of sarcastic one liners about Filipino troops pulling out of Iraq.

On the more serious side, it's a pity that this incident has caused a stop to the depolyment of Filipino workers in the area. Here's a story from Philstar about what a difference in life employment, even in a dangerous are like Iraq, can make. Kawawa naman yung mga katulad ni Erlinda Quillana.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘We’d rather die in Iraq than starve at home’
The Philippine Star 07/15/2004

Clutching a bag of used clothes, Edgardo Lumapas scampers under a makeshift tent outside a Manila recruitment agency promising jobs in Iraq despite a government ban after the kidnapping of a Filipino truck driver.

The 42-year-old father of five has been lining up daily for the past two months outside the Anglo-European Services recruitment agency, hoping for a job interview and a chance to earn up to $600 a month as a forklift operator in Iraq.

Like millions of others, Lumapas says his family’s chance of survival rests on his being able to work abroad. Armed with P4,000 in pocket money he borrowed from friends, he left his family in Leyte province in May for Manila.

"We’d rather die in Iraq while earning than die of hunger here in the Philippines," Lumapas said, speaking on behalf of hundreds of fellow job seekers huddled under a canvas canopy made from a huge poster of US President George W. Bush and his staunch ally President Arroyo.

If Lumapas gets lucky, he will join the estimated seven million Filipino workers scattered all over the world whose dollar remittances keep the economy afloat.

The government hails them as "new generation heroes" sending home, according to the Manila-based Asian Development Bank, an estimated $7.6 billion in 2003 alone, equivalent to 7.5 percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP).

But these overseas Filipino workers also risk their lives daily working in environments that offer them little protection.

Many of them work as construction workers and drivers in the Middle East, while others work as domestic helpers and entertainers in Asia and seamen in ships on all the oceans.

The danger has been magnified by the abduction this month of truck driver Angelo de la Cruz by Iraqi militants demanding the pullout of Filipino troops from the war-ravaged country.

The father of eight from Mexico, Pampanga is threatened with beheading by the militants and has become a symbolic figure for the millions of overseas Filipinos.

De la Cruz was originally based in Saudi Arabia, but was lured into driving a truckload of crude oil into Iraq with promises of a threefold boost in his wages.

The kidnapping has forced the government to impose a travel ban to Iraq, where there are more than 3,000 Filipinos working mostly in US military installations.

Yet, as the country anxiously awaits his fate, thousands continue to line up outside the Anglo-European Services offices. The queue stretches for about two blocks, rendering the narrow city roads impassable to vehicular traffic.

Many of them come from faraway provinces, sleeping on pavements for days on end with only the neon light of a convenience store providing security at night.

A volunteer with a megaphone barks out the names of those who passed the initial screening amid joyful hoots of those who made it and heart-wrenching cries from those who failed.

"My head and stomach are hurting from hunger, but I still have to wait here and wait for my turn," says Erlinda Quillana, a 46-year-old mother of six.

"I have been here for five days and I need to be interviewed. I need to desperately get out of the Philippines because there are no jobs here," she said, her eyes welling with tears.

A former street vendor, Quillana is hoping to be hired as a laundry woman in Iraq and be able to send her children to school and earn enough to buy medicine for her cancer-stricken husband.

"This is our only chance for our status in life to change," she said. "I am willing to risk it there."

Rosalindo Baldoz, administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency, says the De la Cruz episode could temporarily derail deployments to the Middle East. However, she said the Philippines exports labor to over 180 other countries.

She said all overseas workers are adequately protected if they leave through legal channels, but once they are on the ground they have the liberty to enter into new contracts with other employers.

The exodus of workers will continue "until there is enough and adequate jobs locally that they can apply for," Baldoz said. "But if they can’t, there is always overseas employment."

Founded in the 1960s, the Anglo-European Services pioneered the trade of deploying Filipino workers abroad. It won the contract to supply "camp support services" for US military installations in Iraq.

Its president, Lucas Arcilla, says the government ban could encourage others to go through illegal channels to leave. And if that happens, there could be more Filipinos ending up in the hands of Iraqi militants.

Besides, he said, it’s better for these Filipinos to be productive workers overseas than join the ranks of the more than five million unemployed in the country.

"Every morning, when I come here, I see a sign of desperation from these people. But every time they are called for an interview, I see a ray of hope growing in them," he said. — AFP

wow, to say at least $600 a month pay can make a difference in their life. Considering im living in the bay area <considered as the expensive place in the US> that amount of money is just our 2 weeks of grocery and allowance. Well I just wish the world would be at peace and the betterment of our country.

Or in the case of Erlinda Quillana, $600 a month could make a difference between the life and death of her husband. Seriously it would be a good idea to make it clear to Iraq job applicants what the real dangers are; and if they still want to go, then let them go. Why deny that chance to those who want to work hard? What seems pathetic to many of the intellectual elite is a lifetime opportunity to others. Haliburton gives a risk orientation to the truckdrivers they recruit from the USA.

Here's a pic of a typical line outside an Iraq-bound employment agency:



Just imagine how they would take to the news of the ban on labor deployment to Iraq.

uhm... here's what i think...

Why would these men want the Filipinos to leave when all they are doing is help Iraq rebuild itself? Clearly, we are dealing with irrational people here. "kapag ba ikaw tinutukan ng kutsilyo ng isang baliw pakiki-usapan mo pa?" nope. you just do as he says, knowing he wouldn't care about the consequences of taking your life.

Here's what i think GMA should do. Give in to their demands.... for now. When we get dela cruz back, then send all the troops back, send more even, the terrorists never said we couldn't. sure, it'll be costly, and the terrorists will hate us even more, but if she really wants to kiss US ass...

as long as we're with the US, we'll always be in danger of terrorists, and letting one man die to show we're tough wouldn't change that. She should have known this the minute we gave Bush our support.

these are just opinions. what do you guys think?

I really have nothing to say to this other than I agree.

394, I had considered the possibility of sending the troops back to Iraq, too (as if ako yung magde-decide, no? ) but it would endanger the lives of the other Filipinos working in Iraq and the families these OFWs' are supporting. At this point, if I were GMA, I'd rather protect my constituents rather than my national image. By sending OFWs -- who are well aware of what they're getting into -- to Iraq, I'm not supporting the enemy, I'm seeing to my people.

I'm hoping that the terrorists won't target Filipinos anymore after the pullout is effected -- notice that they choose their hostages to target US allies -- but like you said, baliw yung kausap natin dito

I read in a Wall St. Journal article sometime ago about how Iraq-bound American truckdriver applicants are given a risk orientation even before they apply. They are told in very clear, simple and grim terms that in any given day, there is a fairly good chance that they will either die or get injured. After the orientation, majority of the applicants back out and go home. The few who remain go on with the job, knowing full well about the dagers that they are getting into. That's why you hardly see any American hostages willingly asking their government to pull out their soldiers. They weep, they plead for their lives, but they never ask their country to back down. I wonder if these Pinoys going to Iraq are given the same level of orientation that their American counterparts receive.

Personally, I am disappointed with the sudden decision to immediately pullout our troops after initially affirming our stand not to give in to the terrorists’ demands. It shows that as a country we are easily intimidated and cowed during difficult times. Remember, we are dealing here with terrorists whose immediate and perhaps sole intention is to sow terror and fear among their intended targets. With the top government officials taking our troops out from Iraq (an apparent act of conceding), we are making their objectives succeed. Which sets a dangerous precedent to local terrorists/ insurgents.

Am I not being sensitive to the plea of Angelo’s kin? Of course I do am concerned with his family. But then this “it’s better to die in Iraq than to die hungry in Philippines” sentiment from prospective Iraq workers and perhaps our Iraq OFWs only affirms their willingness to risk their lives working in Iraq while fully aware (and having good grasp) of the danger involved -- they do undergo orientation from POEA/OWWA.

Hope the government reviews our position on this.

I posted a new topic with my views on the troop pullout as I feel this should be a new thread...