RIYADH, 6 November 2004 — Filipinos heaved a collective sigh of relief last after the Qatar-based Al Jazeera Arabic television station announced that Filipino accountant Robert Tarongoy had been released by his captors in Iraq.
But Philippine officials withheld any reaction, apparently having learned their lesson from the premature rejoicing that embarrassed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the case of driver Antonio dela Cruz last July.
Dela Cruz was eventually released by his Iraqi captors but only after Arroyo pulled out the Philippine military contingent from the war-ravaged country.
Contacted by Arab News through OFW Congress president Alex Bello last night, Foreign Undersecretary Rafael E. Seguis said the government had no reaction yet.
“We could not be sure and confirm that Robert Tarongoy has been released until he’s at the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad,” Seguis said in a text message to Bello, who in turn forwarded it to Arab News.
Tarongoy, a 31-year-old accountant working for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Co. (SATCCo), a Riyadh-based company that provided catering and foodstuffs to the Iraqi army and others, was seized Monday along with an American, a Nepalese and three Iraqis by armed gunmen from their compound in Baghdad. The kidnappers later released two of the Iraqis.
Arab News called SATCCo’s head office in Riyadh but an official who requested anonymity said that “they have not yet received any official confirmation that Tarongoy had indeed been released.”
The Doha, Qatar-based satellite network did not give a source for its information, saying the release of Tarongoy and another hostage, a Nepalese, comes after the wife of “one hostage appealed to kidnappers for his release on the occasion of the holy Ramadan.”
Al Jazeera’s announcements in the case of dela Cruz proved to be accurate.
Tarongoy’s wife, Ivy, made a plea in Manila for the release of her husband, reminding her husband’s abductors that there are no longer any Filipino troops in Iraq..
“Robert is a good man with deep respect for all Muslims,” said Ivy Tarongoy. “My country, the Philippines, has no troops in Iraq. My husband and I wish only the best for the Iraqi people.”
She told The Associated Press: “I ask that he be freed as a symbol of goodwill and friendship between the peoples of Iraq and the Philippines. I do not see any more possible grievances that the kidnappers may have against the Philippine government.”
Tarongoy is the second Filipino to be abducted in Iraq. Earlier,
“I feel so very much in pain. I’m still wondering if he is still alive,” Tarongoy’s wife, Ivy, was quoted by the AP as saying as she appealed to her husband’s abductors to release him.
She said her husband bargained hard for his $900 monthly salary in Iraq — nearly nine times what he earned in his hometown of Davao.
Meanwhile, Bello urged all Filipinos going abroad to follow the government ban and not cross into Iraq for their own sake.
Despite the ban imposed by President Arroyo after dela Cruz’s abduction, the number of Filipinos in Iraq has reportedly swollen to 6,000.
The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said only about 4,000 Filipinos are listed among those workin in US military camps across Iraq, mostly as maintenance workers and cooks because of the high wages.
