JEDDAH, 28 May — “Too young to retire and too old to begin all over again.” This remark from a Philippine consulate official yesterday was about two of the three Filipinos who were deported last night.
All the three were detained by local authorities for sending hate text messages to the Philippine ambassador in the Kingdom.
Abulkhair “Bong” Guro and Rawi-ani “Winston” Usman were sent home on board a Singapore Airlines flight, along with Usman’s family, said Philippine Consulate General officials.
Ibrahim Zailon, consular assistant at the consulate, confirmed by phone that the two deportees had completed all immigration formalities for the airline’s SQ425 flight, whose scheduled departure was 9.30 p.m.
Vice Consul Angelo V. Amonoy, officer in charge at the consulate, said the third “hate texter,” Kamal “Kim” Lomondot, was made to remain because his wife, Mariam Sirikit, has just delivered a child. Lomondot remained at the Deportation Center.
“We were told that Mr. Lomondot and his family would follow soon,” Amonoy told Arab News. He was the secretary general of Ranao Divers Association.
Ambassador Rafael Seguis and Kadatuan Usop, the Philippine consul general in Jeddah, are both in the Philippines, presumably in connection with the controversy. Guro and Usman were given an emotional send-off at the airport by relatives and friends.
A consulate official, who was present at the airport to see through the deportation, remarked: “What a way to go after so many years of stay in the Kingdom. They are neither too young to retire nor too old to start all over again.”
Both the deportees were in detention for 108 days, including 58 days at the Deportation Center.
Usman, 45, left with hiw wife and seven children - three girls and four boys. He hails from Marawi City in Central Mindanao.
“I worked in the Saudi Binladin Group for 21 years. All of my children grew up here and they are bound to find it difficult to settle back home,” Usman told Arab News in a telephone interview from the airport. “Right now, I’ve no plans of what I’m going to occupy myself with back home. In fact, I’m visiting my home after 14 years,” said Usman, who was a planning and cost certified engineer and worked in Madinah, Jeddah and Taif. He was founder president of the Association of Ranao Engineers & Architects (AREA),
Guro, 41, was a leading figure in the community. He was president of Kasapi Federation, an umbrella organization of some 20 Filipino associations. He was also president of AREA. He went back alone after a stay of 15 years and a month in Jeddah.
“It’s with a heavy heart I’m going back,” remarked Guro, adding: “I’ve no definite plans of what I’ll be doing in the immediate future.”
Saudi security officers arrested Guro, Usman and Lomondot on Feb. 16 and 17 after identifying them as the ones sending “hate” text messages to Ambassador Seguis.
Diplomatic nightmare
The arrest had become a nightmare for officials of the Philippine mission in the Kingdom.
Sources at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila have said Seguis’ tour of duty in the Kingdom may have to be shortened as a result.
Community groups led by the Kasapi Federation in Jeddah, of which Guro is chairman, have sent petitions to President Gloria Arroyo and to Vice President Teofisto Guingona seeking the recall of Seguis from his post in Riyadh.
Kasapi accused the ambassador of putting his own people in danger by overreacting to what could have been a purely Filipino affair.
As earlier reported by Arab News, Seguis said he reported the hate messages to local authorities only to determine who were behind it, but with no intention of having them arrested.
He said they took hate messages seriously in view of the near-fatal bombing of Ambassador Leonides Caday in Jakarta last year.
After the hate texters were identified, the embassy immediately wrote Saudi officials to free the culprits, with Seguis saying he had forgiven them.
The embassy had also sought the intercession of various officials, including the Saudi ambassador to Manila, for the release of the three.
But authorities concerned reportedly told embassy officials that the three would have to be deported to send a message to expatriates not to mess around with the host country’s laws.
“You may have forgiven them but they (hate texters) will have to answer to our laws,” a top Saudi official was quoted by embassy sources as telling Seguis.
“We don’t want anybody to be threatening our guests,” the official was also quoted as saying.
Root of quarrel
As admitted by Seguis and Kasapi leaders themselves, the arrest and imprisonment of the three texters was an offshoot of a dispute over the examinations being given to graduating elementary and high school students of Philippine schools.
Seguis barred students of the Philippine Community School in Jeddah (PCSJ) from taking the NEAT and NSAT exams, saying the rules state that only accredited or licensed schools may participate.
The PCSJ, which broke away in 2000 from the International Philippine School in Jeddah (IPSJ), is neither accredited by the Philippine education department nor licensed by the Saudi education ministry. It was subsequently padlocked last February.
PCSJ officials and parents asked for consideration if only for the sake of the students but when Seguis refused, Lomondot and Usman sent him the hate messages through mobile phones.
