DFA confirms Pinoy ship captain killed in Nigeria

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed has that a Filipino ship captain died in a December attack in Nigeria.

Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr., head of the DFA’s migrant workers’ office, withheld the identity of the seafarer without saying why.

“It’s confirmed, he died in Nigeria," Conejos said in a press conference on Monday.

The Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration would provide financial assistance to the family of the ship captain, including burial services, upon verification of the OFW’s papers. Conejos did not give other details on the repatriation of the Filipino's remains.

Reports said that gunmen on board speedboats raided the ship in the southern state of Akwa Ibom with the Filipino and two Russian crew members on Dec. 19. The Russians were reportedly abducted and have not been released.

Incidents like this further strengthened the government’s stand on keeping the deployment ban on Nigeria, an oil-rich country in the African continent.

The total deployment ban imposed by the Philippine government bars Filipinos from going to Nigeria due to the spate of kidnappings – both in Nigeria’s soil and seas – in 2006.

Last December 14, Malacañang upheld the deployment ban in Nigeria along with four other countries — Jordan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon— upon the advice of different Philippine Embassy officials.

Conejos said the DFA has yet to lift any deployment bans on these countries until March 2009, during the first quarter assessment of Filipino envoys in the area. - Mark Joseph Ubalde, GMANews.TV

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