RIYADH, 23 April 2004 — Silverio Posadas, the lone Filipino casualty in the latest terror attack in this capital city was declared in stable condition yesterday.

" I am well now. Thank God for directing us to take the safe and right way," said Posadas, who was taken to the intensive care unit of Al-Mishari Hospital in downtown Riyadh due to severe shock from the blast.

Posadas said he and another Filipino, Reynaldo Foja, a co-worker at Al-Quraishi Furniture, were installing furniture inside the Public Security Headquarters and Traffic Department building when the bomb went off on Wednesday.

"We were about 75 meters away from the center of the blast," said Posadas who was with another Filipino Reynaldo Foja, a co-worker at Al-Quraishi Furniture.

"It's good we took the short cut route to the security forces building. Had we taken the other road, we would have been very close to where the bomb was at the time it exploded," recalled Posadas, who was driving their company car.

He said the bomb exploded 15 minutes after he parked the car. The car, along with many other vehicles parked nearby, was a total wreck.

Through smoke and debris, the two managed to go back to their company and it was their sales manager who brought him to the hospital because of shock. Foja was unscathed.

The 57-year-old Posadas had been working with Al-Quraishi for 23 years. He said he called his family in Iloilo in the central Philippines to assure them he was in stable condition.

"I am still in shock, though, whenever I remember the blast," he said.

Posadas said he also felt reassured when Labor Attaché Manuel Roldan and other labor officials visited him in hospital.

Minister Mariano Dumia, the charge d'affaires at the Philippine Embassy, said in a phone interview that they have checked with other hospitals in Riyadh and found that Posadas was the only Filipino hurt in the blast, which killed a Syrian girl and injured 148 others.

"Our fellowmen working in other hospitals like Shumeisy had called me immediately to inform me updates on victims being brought there, and hopefully we won't be receiving bad news in the coming days regarding other kababayan," said Dumia.