DFA exec: RP may re-open embassy in Baghdad

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine embassy in strife-torn Iraq is likely to be re-opened within the year as the situation there continues to improve, an official from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Tuesday. In a media forum in Heritage Hotel in Pasay City, Jesus Yabes, the DFA assistant secretary for the Middle East and African affairs, said the decision to re-open the embassy in Iraq would depend on security reports from the US government intelligence. “Every month we make an assessment on the situation in Iraq. There are US intelligence reports that the situation in Iraq is improving. And if the situation improves, we will re-open our embassy there. Perhaps before the end of the year if the situation improves we can re-open our embassy there," Yabes said. The Philippine embassy in Baghdad was relocated to Amman, Jordan, in January 2005 due to worsening security condition in Iraq. Yabes said aside from the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait have also committed to set up an embassy in Iraq. “One of the reasons also why we didn’t open immediately (an embassy there) was because these countries still have not opened their embassies. We are waiting also for them to open," Yabes said. More than 6,000 Filipinos are currently in Iraq, most of whom are illegally recruited or managed to sneak into the country due to a deployment ban imposed by the Philippine government. On May, Filipino cook, Dionasis "Jojo" Saguid, was killed in a mortar attack inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The 32-year-old Saguid was convinced by an illegal recruiter to defy the travel ban. He was able to go to Iraq through entering Dubai. Saguid earned $ 1,000 a month in Baghdad. Filipinos usually sneak into Iraq through neighboring areas such as Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, and Dubai. Yabes admitted that the DFA has no way of monitoring the Filipinos defying the travel ban. He said employers, mostly American contractors, have devised other methods of recruiting workers. “These transactions are done in the internet and it’s very difficult to monitor it," he said. - GMANews.TV