MANILA, 25 March 2003 — On high alert for rebel violence in reprisal for the US-led attack on Iraq, the government said it would expel a diplomat and an attaché of the Iraqi Embassy in Manila for allegedly engaging in espionage.
“I have approved the expulsion of one Iraqi diplomat and one non-diplomatic personnel of the embassy,” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said yesterday.
Iraqi Embassy First Secretary Abdul Karim Shwaikh and Attaché Karim Nassir Hamid have 72 hours to pack their bags and leave.
The expulsion of Shwaikh and Hamid reportedly reduced the number of Iraqi staff at the embassy to just four.
The expulsions are the second in less than two months. In February, the government expelled Husham Hussain, second secretary of the Iraqi embassy, for alleged links to the Abu Sayyaf bandit group in Mindanao.
Macapagal yesterday made no reference to the US request for 60 countries to close down Iraqi embassies and to expel Iraqi diplomats. “We are only expelling those with some evidence of espionage even if we don’t have to explain any reason for expelling diplomats,” she said.
Foreign Secretary Blas Ople mentioned the reason behind the expulsion of the diplomat and an attaché. He summoned the Iraqi charge d’affaires to tell him that the Philippines was expelling two of his personnel for allegedly spying on US facilities in the Philippines.
Ople said the chief of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), General Cesar Garcia, provided the Department of Foreign Affairs with information that Shwaikh and Hamid were caught taking pictures of the American Cemetery in Fort Bonifacio, a former Army camp near the Makati business district, on the eve of Memorial Day last November.
“When they saw that they were being tailed by members of the PNP (Philippine National Police), they changed their taxis several times in the hope of escaping surveillance. This is one part of the general picture,” Ople said.
Iraqi Charge d’Affaires Samir Bolus, at his meeting with Ople, denied that the Iraqis were part of a terrorist plot.
“I didn’t have to discuss (with Bolus) the details of the allegations against these foreign envoys but I assure you that the reports of the intelligence community are substantial and credible,” Ople said.
Sen. Manuel Villar said the government should stop “bootlicking” the United States by expelling Iraqi diplomats and other Iraqi nationals from the country just to please Washington.
Villar, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, said the reported investigation of another Iraqi diplomat allegedly for espionage must be fair.
He said the government should not heed the US request for its allies, including the Philippines, to sever diplomatic ties with Baghdad by closing Iraqi embassies in their countries and expelling diplomats. “The government has been very busy pleasing Uncle Sam. This is already OA (overacting),” the senator said.
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said there was no need to give in to every US request. “I have no quarrel with Iraq and I do not think Iraq is a direct threat to our national security,” he said.
But Ople said the decision to expel the two Iraqis was made by the Philippine government on its own.
Macapagal reiterated her statement on Sunday that the Philippines was not going to close the Iraqi Embassy but would deal with its diplomats on an individual basis.
Presidential Spokesperson Ignacio Bunye said that while the Philippines could not disregard allegations of espionage against Iraqi diplomats, “We will not just expel diplomats without evidence.”
