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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more