MANILA, 12 November 2006 — The Philippine labor attaché in Riyadh, Rustico dela Fuente, has been ordered to immediately return to Tengiz, Kazakhstan, to assist Filipino workers who were reportedly getting restless again.
“We want to make sure we have someone there whom the OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) can talk to and address their concerns,” said Labor Secretary Arturo Brion yesterday.
There are still 216 OFWs employed at the Tengiz Oil Field who are awaiting repatriation. They opted to return to the Philippines, citing the continued tension at the Bechtel oil project work site between Turkish and Kazakh workers that erupted last October.
Brion said he needed dela Fuente to pacify the OFWs, who he said were getting agitated due to their inability to get flights back to the Philippines. “He will oversee the repatriation and make sure all the concerns and questions of our workers are addressed,” Brion said.
The 216 workers are part of the more than 50 percent of the OFWs who signified their intent to return to the Philippines.
OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque said the agency continues to coordinate with airlines to charter a plane for the 216 OFWs. “We’re working double time to charter a plane that will bring them home. Kazakhstan is not a major flight destination so it’s taking time to arrange the chartered flight.”
Roque said he expects a flight to be arranged by next week and is hopeful that the OFWs can be brought back to the Philippines by Wednesday. “We know how hard it is to be in a foreign country so we are doing everything we can to make sure the welfare and safety of our Filipino workers are taken cared of,” he added.
De la Fuente earlier said more than half of the 600 Filipinos working at the Tengiz Oil Field opted to return to the Philippines for fear of their security. In a report to the labor department de la Fuente, who was suddenly pulled out from his post in Riyadh, said that only 220 of the OFWs employed by SK-Bechtel resumed work last Monday.
The workers returned to work after the company’s “New Site Security Plan” came into force.
De la Fuente, who was a member of the consular team headed by the Philippine Ambassador to Pakistan, Jaime Yambao, was party to the consultations held between Bechtel and their expatriate workers.
The three-person consular team composed of DFA and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) officials joined the OFWs returning to their Chevroil Project worksite and observed the new security measures in place.
“The situation when the Filipinos returned to work in the oil field remained peaceful, and there was no tension,” de la Fuente said in his report to Brion and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo.
