MANILA, 28 July 2004 — The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) vowed to go after recruitment agencies of Filipino drivers who offered contracts for jobs in Saudi Arabia and later drove into Iraq for their companies.
Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said in a radio interview that the deploying agency “may be sanctioned if the employment contracts did not specify that they (the drivers) would perform cross-border work from Saudi Arabia to Iraq.”
Drivers were being enticed by their employers in Saudi Arabia with additional allowances for going into Iraq and Sto. Tomas said this was a violation of their employment contracts.
More than a hundred Filipino drivers delivering supplies to American-led forces in Iraq were held at the Saudi-Iraq border after they were stopped from crossing into that war-torn country in the past days.
Marianito Roque, acting administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, said the Filipinos came in two batches of 75 and 50 drivers each. Both convoys came from Saudi Arabia and were stopped at unspecified immigration points near the border.
The Philippine government had imposed a ban against the deployment of workers to Iraq following the capture of Filipino truck driver Angelo dela Cruz last July 4 by Iraqi militants. Dela Cruz was eventually released but the ban on deployment of OFWs there remained.
Besides, the DOLE reported that the drivers themselves were apprehensive of their safety following the hostage-taking of dela Cruz.
Sto. Tomas said there was contract misrepresentation if they would be required by their employers to cross borders when their contracts stipulated that they would be based and perform their jobs only in Saudi Arabia.
She said she had instructed Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) officials in the Middle East to monitor cross-border activities and advise employers of Filipino workers in the region regarding the ban on the deployment of OFWs to Iraq.
Benefits
In Alkhobar, Labor Attaché Delmer Cruz said Angelo dela Cruz will receive all the benefits due to him including his unpaid salaries and service award from his employer.
Cruz said that Fahd Al-Shurey, manager of the Saudi National Establishment, assured him to give what is due to Angelo during their meeting the other night.
He said Al-Shurey was very supportive and cooperating even during the height of the hostage crisis in Iraq.
Al-Shurey even offered his commitment for full support and assistance just for the safe release of Angelo, the labor attaché said.
It was Al-Shurey who found a way to contact the 10 Filipino drivers and other expats who were ambushed together with Angelo early this month. Cruz was able to talk to the drivers through the satellite telephone of a certain Jaber in Iraq, who was with the drivers. Both the DOLE and the Department of Foreign Affairs instructed Cruz to coordinate quietly with the employers of dela Cruz and the 10 other Filipino drivers who were also trapped in Iraq.
The 10 drivers were Vicente Consigla, George Dumancas, and Edgardo Romero of Al Sudais Transport Company in Riyadh; Salman Ali Abdul Sattar and Romeo Colante of Al Jeri Trading Company in Riyadh; Alfonso Francisco, Entigo Gumayagay, and Cesar Ulitin of Aldrees Trucking Company in Riyadh; Santiago Esteves of Al-Askar Company in Dammam, and Jonnie Reyes of SNE based in Hafr Al-Batin.
Francisco, Consigla, Dumancas, Esteves, and Abdul Sattar were the first to be repatriated from Iraq and already arrived Manila yesterday. The five others are still waiting for their repatriation.
Cruz also said that he is now negotiating with the employers of the 10 truck drivers to give them whatever benefits were due them.
Before Angelo’s release, Cruz and other selected Philippine labor attachés in the Middle East were asked to fly to Jordan by Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas for an emergency conference. She had asked the labor attachés to formulate a policy and program interventions to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
