MANILA, 10 March 2007 — The Filipino woman who went missing on Feb. 7 in Nigeria was not kidnapped but had actually left for the Philippines, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said the department has proof showing that Josiebeth Gregorio Foroozan, a businesswoman married to an Iranian, left the Nigerian city of Lagos for Frankfurt, Germany, on the day of her disappearance.

Conejos said the woman arrived in the Philippines on Feb. 10 on board Lufthansa Flight 778. The Bureau of Immigration has also confirmed the arrival of the woman in Manila on that date shown in the Lufthansa Airlines passenger manifest. “Her case is not a kidnapping case,” Conejos said, adding that nobody has come forward to claim the kidnapping or make demands for the woman’s freedom.

What is puzzling, Conejos said, is why Foroozan has not made contact with her relatives in the Philippines.

Foroozan’s husband reported to the Philippine Embassy in Nigeria that she went to a bank in Lagos on Feb. 7 and had not returned home since, leading to speculations that she may have been kidnapped. The last communication she made was to her husband, said Conejos.

“She texted her husband from her cell phone. That was the last heard of her and her alleged kidnapping,” he said.

Her disappearance came a day after bandits in Nigeria’s oil-rich Warri region kidnapped Winston Helera, a Filipino engineer employed by Shell Petroleum Development Corp.

Helera was abducted about a week after another group of gunmen seized a cargo ship and its whole 24-man Filipino crew also in Warri. The seamen were freed late last month. Helera was released on Thursday, Conejos announced yesterday at a press conference.

A report by the Philippine Embassy in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, said that Foroozan left her teenage daughter and son to her husband.

“She is now a missing persons case,” he said. Conejos explained that the since the woman is not abroad and she is not in distress - the two conditions that make her case fall under the DFA’s jurisdiction, “the case is closed as far as the department is concerned.”

Nonetheless, he said, the department has turned over her case to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to establish her whereabouts and to find out what really happened,” he said.

Foroozan’s relatives yesterday urged the government to help find her. Her sister, Jane Gregorio, said she had not communicated with any member of the family after newsof her alleged abduction.

“We will leave matter in the hands of the NBI,” Gregorio told ANC television in Filipino. “We are happy that she’s here. The important thing is that she’s alive. There must be a reason why she hasn’t contacted us,” she said.

No Ransom Paid

Meanwhile, the embassy in Nigeria said in a report to the DFA that Helera “is well and in good condition” and will fly back to the Philippines after a security debriefing.

The 51-year-old engineer was on his way to Owerri airport to catch a flight to Lagos when he and his police escort were seized. His escort was shot dead, reports had said. Conejos said the Philippine government did not pay any ransom for Helera’s release. Asked if Helera’s employer did, he said: “I am not in a position to respond to that question. But I can say that the employer does not deal directly with the kidnappers.”

“The host government which has jurisdiction of the case takes full responsibility for the safe release of the hostages; it is involved in the actual negotiations and would know the terms and timing of the negotiations,” he said.

Helera’s wife, mother, sister, brother, and two daughters, who attended the press conference, thanked the department for his safe release.

Following the kidnappings of the seamen, President Arroyo ordered a ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Nigeria.

Nigeria is one of the biggest employers of Filipino workers in Africa, with some 3,900 Filipinos employed there at the end of 2006.

The past year has seen an upsurge in violence by separatist groups seeking a greater share of Nigeria’s oil wealth for the inhabitants of the Niger Delta.

Asked if the current deployment ban would be lifted now that all kidnapping cases involving Filipinos have been resolved, Conejos said the DFA and the Labor Department, which will make the final decision on the deployment of workers to the African nation, would have to discuss the security situation.