RIYADH, 22 July 2004 — Amid the euphoria in the Philippines over the release of truck driver Angelo dela Cruz by his Iraqi captors, questions were raised yesterday on the perceived double standard employed by the Arroyo administration for distressed Filipino expatriates.

In e-mails circulated across the cyberworld among Filipinos, some wondered why so much attention was given to dela Cruz by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her officials but not for Raul Flores, a Filipino civil engineer who was killed in Baghdad on June 15 in a bomb attack.

“Both are Filipinos. Both are migrant workers. I wonder what is the difference between Raul and Angelo, other than the fact that Raul is dead while Angelo is well alive?” asked Francis Oca of Saudi Telecom Company (STC) in Riyadh.

Oca said it was elating that the president took the side of a poor OFW rather than the concerns of the US government, which wanted the Philippines not to bow to the kidnap gang’s demand that Manila pulls out its 51-strong peacekeeping contingent in Iraq.

But he added that the government’s almost complete silence in the case of Flores is worrisome. He noted that while the country rejoiced over the release of dela Cruz, the remains of Flores arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila unnoticed.

“Not a single representative from those (government) agencies were around to help the Flores family when Raul arrived, while the family of dela Cruz received help of all kinds, from free house and lot to scholarship grants to all of his children,” he added.

He made special mention of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), and Overseas workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), whose officials were so busy with dela Cruz.

He lamented that Raul’s family was not even given the burial and insurance benefits they are entitled to, although the father of Flores admitted that his son had no pertinent documents with the OWWA when he left for Iraq on May 24, because he was directly hired by the American firm, Global Turbine Services Inc. of the General Electric Co. (GE).

The Answer

Manila-based Annette Ustig said, however, that Oca’s query is a no-brainer.

“Angelo is Kapampangan. Raul Flores is NOT,” Ustig said, suggesting that dela Cruz was given more attention only because he comes from the same province — Pampanga — as President Arroyo.

Rashid Fabricante of the Pusong Mamon Task Force in Riyadh said what happened reflects not just a double but triple standard being used by the OWWA in dealing with the so-called “new heroes” of the Philippines.

“It further conveys the message to us, the living OFWs, that if you will die as an OFW, die talking and do it loudly, pleading for your life, and the government, the philanthropists, the left, the right and the center will come to your rescue at whatever cost,” he added.

“Flores offered the supreme sacrifice without lights, cameras and government attention because he died silently...” Fabricante added.

Fritz Arthur Armada, another OFW working with a law firm, said what the government and other groups did was actually nothing new.

“When it’s newsworthy, we are all there, we are all showbiz, we hug the limelight, show our compassion, our caring, more often ignorance bordering on stupidity,” he said.

Word From Malaca?ang

In Manila, Malaca?ang Palace said the unusual attention given to dela Cruz does not mean other OFWs would be neglected.

“It’s just to be expected that in view of the unusual circumstances of the captivity of Angelo, no media attention was given to them. But this is not to say that the benefits due will not be forthcoming,” presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye was quoted by the Manila media as saying.

Dela Cruz was reunited with his wife and brother in a reunion in the United Arab Emirates yesterday. “I feel like I’ve been given a new life,” a tired-looking dela Cruz told reporters.

He had been flown from Iraq on an Emirates air force plane to a military base just outside the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi yesterday afternoon.

At about the same time his flight landed, a commercial plane carrying his wife, Arsenia, and his brother landed at the Abu Dhabi civilian airport. The three then met at an Abu Dhabi hotel, running to each other and hugging tightly, tears streaming down their faces. Dela Cruz said he was treated well despite the threat of death. “I was treated very well and given food,” he said.

Not Reassuring

Bunye’s assurance, however, did not sound reassuring to another OFW in Riyadh, who asked not to be named.

He noted that when a Filipino worker was murdered in Riyadh last year, not a single OWWA representative was at the airport in Manila to assist them and they never got any financial assistance from the welfare agency.

No details of the case were immediately available, but the source claimed that even the transport expenses of the victim’s remains from the Manila airport to his province in the north were even shouldered by the family.

In Jeddah last year, the OWWA office in Manila seemed to be sitting on the request of 13 stranded fishermen for plane tickets for their repatriation.

But when opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson, who heard of the fishermen’s plight during his visit to the Kingdom, arranged for plane tickets with the Philippine Airlines, OWWA stopped them from using the Lacson tickets. It all of a sudden sent tickets purchased by the agency.

It’s all because of the publicity generated, as in the case of dela Cruz, that Philippine officials are roused into acting quickly, observers say.

And in a sign of exasperation, Fabricante wondered when the POEA, OWWA and the like would self-destruct “so that will never see or hear Filipinos like Contemplacion, Dizon, Giray, Cabasag, Flores and thousands more who left the country with hopes but came back in coffins, their hopes shattered and dreams gone to oblivion?”

“We are tired of politics, we want to come home alive and join the government in nation building,” he said.