MANILA, 19 April 2005 — The Philippine government yesterday urged thousands of OFWs in Iraq to strongly consider returning home following a series of attacks over the weekend that killed one Filipino and wounded two others.
Rey Torres, a security guard employed by Qatar International Trading Company, was killed in a shooting incident in Baghdad late Sunday, while two other workers were wounded when armed men attacked a convoy of vehicles on Saturday.
“It now becomes more and more urgent that Filipinos still in Baghdad strongly consider voluntary repatriation as soon as possible,” Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said as he announced the death of Torres.
“Recent events have shown that the threat to safety and lives of Filipino workers in Iraq has become even greater,” he added. “The threat is real.”
Romulo also advised OFWS who are having difficulty returning home to seek assistance from the Philippine embassy in Baghdad.
Torres was outside his place of work when the shooting incident happened late Sunday.
His death occured a day after five Filipinos were attacked while on their way to Baghdad airport, injuring two of them who were later declared out of danger.
All five workers were immediately repatriated and scheduled to arrive in Manila later Monday.
Torres was the fourth Filipino fatality in Iraq since 2004, when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo withdrew the Philippines’ small humanitarian mission in exchange for the freedom of a truck driver seized by Iraqi militants.
While the government banned the deployment of workers to Iraq after the kidnapping, an estimated 6,000 Filipino workers remain there, employed by various foreign companies servicing American troops.
A Filipino accountant, 31-year-old Roberto Tarongoy, is also still being held captive by Iraqi militants, more than five months after he was seized with other workers from the office of a Saudi Arabian company in Baghdad.
