MANILA, 9 July 2004 — The Philippines yesterday banned its contract workers from going to Iraq where a Filipino has been taken hostage and threatened with beheading. However, the government kept silent on the kidnappers’ demands that Manila withdraw its peacekeepers.

A video, broadcast by the Arab television station Al-Jazeera on Wednesday, showed three armed and masked men standing behind the seated hostage, threatening to kill him if the Philippines does not pull out within three days. It did not give any details of the man’s capture, but the group claimed to have killed an Iraqi guarding him.

The Philippine charge d’affaires in Baghdad, Ricardo Endaya, confirmed the hostage was a Filipino abducted near Fallujah. ABS-CBN TV, quoting the Philippine ambassador in Qatar, identified him as Angelo dela Cruz, a truck driver who crossed into Iraq from Saudi Arabia.

“Technically we are not yet negotiating with the hostage-takers, but we have already established lines of communication with them through intermediaries,” Endaya said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo “ordered an immediate stop to the deployment of new workers going to Iraq,” her spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, earlier said. “And then she is asking for an assessment from our Middle East team.”

The president, whose order applies to those hired via government labor agencies, also offered help for any workers who wanted to come home. There are about 4,000 Filipinos employed in US military bases in Iraq as cooks, mechanics or in other jobs.

Fifty-one Philippines soldiers and police are part of the multinational force in Iraq. The deployment is scheduled to end later this month, and Manila has been considering whether to extend their tour of duty.

A Cabinet committee held an emergency meeting to address the hostage crisis as a lobby group for 7 million overseas workers urged Arroyo to meet the kidnappers’ demands.

Migrante spokesman Vince Borneo said the incident shows “how negligent the government is toward sending our workers abroad. There are other choices, other countries, where their safety can be assured.”

Roy Cimatu, head of the government’s Middle East team, was to fly to Iraq later to “exert all efforts” to save the abducted Filipino.