ALKHOBAR, 31 May 2004 — Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla confirmed yesterday that three Filipinos were among the 22 killed in the terror attacks. Three other Filipinos were among the injured.

Guinomla identified the fatalities as Feliciano Gerry Dizon, deputy finance officer of the Resource Science Arabian Limited (RSAL); Joel Guiray, a driver at RSAL; and Mariano Cabasag, a chief cook at the Oasis Compound restaurant.

Guinomla said he and the embassy staff saw the bodies of the three victims yesterday afternoon at the King Fahd University Hospital in Alkhobar. He said Dizon’s wife, who had been in the Kingdom for about a month along with one of the couple’s four children, became hysterical during their meeting.

“It was very sad. She was crying and wanted to know where her husband was hit,” Guinomla said of the emotional meeting in which he conveyed the condolences from embassy and government.

Guinomla quoted Dizon’s wife as saying her 45-year old husband was kind and thoughtful, and was a doting father, especially with the child who insisted on staying with the parents in Alkhobar.

According to the embassy and community leaders, Dizon is from Angeles City in the province of Pampanga, north of Manila. Guiray is from La Paz in Manila’s suburban city of Makati.

Cabasag is a native of the Cagayan Valley region in the northern Philippines.

The injured Filipinos were identified as Marvin Pereno, a waiter at Oasis; Jimuel Tarrosa, an aircon technician of Saudi Airconditioning and a native of San Mateo, Rizal; and Alberto Costales.

Guinomla said that Pereno had been operated on yesterday morning for facial wounds at the Saad General Hospital in Alkhobar. He is now recuperating and doctors said that he is in serious but stable condition.

Tarrosa is confined at the Astoon General Hospital with a gunshot wound on his leg. He suffered a fracture but doctors said he would be discharged from hospital within a week.

Forty-year-old Tarrosa told Arab News from his hospital bed he was entering the APICORP office when he was shot by one of the attackers. “I rushed to enter the building because I thought the firing was happening only outside. When I reached the door, one gunman fired at me,” he said.

Tarrosa was rescued by ambulance after the terrorists vacated the APICORP building.

Another victim was Alberto Costales who sustained a minor injury and was discharged immediately after receiving treatment.

Guinomla also reported that the two Filipinos who were trapped in the siege at the Oasis Compound had survived the attack. They (Camilo Tiraco and Hernando Lumba) were not counted among the hostages because they were able to hide on the fourth floor of the building. The hostage-takers were on the first and second floors only.

Guinomla said Tiraco was in contact with him until Tiraco's mobile phone ran out of battery at 9 p.m. Saturday.

Guinomla said he was elated when he found out that Tiraco and Lumba were among the survivors.

— With input from Chito P. Manuel & Rodolfo C. Estimo, Jr.