MANILA, 24 November 2004 — Amid rejoicing yesterday at the release of a diplomat held captive for nearly a month in Afghanistan, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo reminded Filipinos to continue “efforts and prayers” for another Filipino hostage in Iraq.
Angelito Nayan, 34, and two other UN workers were freed overnight in Kabul following negotiations with kidnappers, who were either working for a Taleban-linked group that claimed responsibility for the Oct. 28 abductions or were criminals, Afghan officials said.
Relatives and neighbors of Nayan in the Las Pinas suburb gathered at their community chapel to celebrate.
A group of Nayan’s neighbors, who have been holding vigils and masses since Nayan was abducted, went around the neighborhood announcing the good news on a loudspeaker.
“Praise God. Thank God he is free,” Nicole Daniel, president of the Las Pi?as neighborhood association to which Nayan belongs, said by phone. “We are so emotional. Everybody’s crying here.”
Nayan’s elder sister Grace expressed the family’s joy over Angelito’s release and thanked everyone who helped secure and prayed for his freedom.
“Today, this 23rd of November is the most beautiful day of our lives because today my brother Angelito Nayan, Anneta Flanigan and Shqipe Hebibe are finally set free unharmed after 26 days of captivity,” she told a news conference.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Jose Brillantes said that Nayan and two other UN workers abducted with him were “in good health and undergoing a medical checkup in an Afghan hospital.”
“I talked to him and he gave his thanks to President Arroyo, (Foreign Affairs Secretary) Alberto Romulo, (Labor Secretary) Patricia Santo Tomas and other Philippine officials for helping secure his release,” Brillantes said.
Malaca?ang Palace said Nayan will be flown back to the Philippines in 24 hours.
In a statement read by Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, the president called on the Filipino people to continue praying for the release of Roberto Tarongoy who was kidnapped in Iraq on Nov. 1.
Tarongoy, an accountant hired by the Saudi Arabia Trading Corporation (SATCo), was kidnapped with two other expatriates by unidentified militants in Baghdad.
Sen. Manny Villar, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, called for a blanket deployment ban of Overseas Filipino Workers in territories hostile to the United States.
He said the abduction of Nayan should be an “eye-opener to everyone.”
Villar said there is a serious and urgent need to put a stop to the deployment of Filipinos to countries which consider Filipinos as “enemies” because of the Philippines’ association with the United States.
“We should face the reality that we are considered by extremists as enemies because we are perceived as comrades of the US.... This perception did not stop even after we have pulled out our troops (in Iraq). We never should have participated in the war against Iraq in the first place,” Villar said.
“We don’t know what really happened but I am just hoping that we have learned our lessons with the kidnapping of our kababayan,” he said. “In fact, I don’t know why there are still Filipinos who manage to sneak into these war-torn countries. Those people who recruit Filipinos for employment to Iraq should really be arrested,” he said.
Filipinos in Saudi Arabia also expressed happiness over Nayan’s release and prayed that Tarongoy would soon follow suit.
“My group, MOTHER, has been praying for the release of Angelito Nayan in Afghanistan as well as Robert Tarongoy in Iraq,” Jeddah-based Perla S. Vega told Arab News.
She said that MOTHER has been meeting regularly to discuss the case of Nayan and Tarongoy and pray for their safety and release by their captors.
In Alkhobar, Jojie Apolinario, overall chairman of All Filipino Community and Sports Commission (AFSCOM), said: “On behalf of AFSCOM, which is composed of more than 46 member-groups, I would like to express my happiness indeed for Nayan’s release. I also hope that Robert Tarongoy will likewise be released soon.”
Apolinario said that Nayan’s ordeal has finally ended and it certainly translates the worries of his family and friends to extreme happiness.
In Riyadh, Flavio Manilum, head of the Order of the Knights of Rizal (OKOR-Riyadh Chapter), likewise expressed his happiness regarding the release of Nayan.
“The prayer rallies of Filipinos back home and in other countries for Nayan have not gone unheeded. On behalf of OKOR-Riyadh Chapter, I would like to express my happiness about this positive development,” Manilum told Arab News. (Additional input from Rodolfo Estimo in Riyadh and The Associated Press)
