Cimatu to lead high-level team to Libya following abduction of Filipino workers

Published August 7, 2018 10:07pm 

 MICHAELA DEL CALLAR

The Philippine government has tapped retired general and now Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu to lead a high-level team to Libya following the abduction of three Filipino workers in the North African state, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said Tuesday.
Cayetano said Cimatu, who was former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s special envoy to the Middle East, was chosen to head the team because of his “wide experience” in ensuring the safety and welfare of Filipino workers in conflict-torn states in the region, such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 72-year-old former Armed Forces Chief, Cayetano added, also has connections and friends in the Gulf states.
Cayetano said he can not say for now if Cimatu will be flying immediately to Libya and who will be accompanying him if the trip pushes through.
He also declined to give further details on the case as “high-level negotiations are underway.”
Other members of team include Filipino diplomats, representatives from the Labor Department and Philippine security forces, Cayetano said.
“The team is working on their own timeline, if this happens we do this, if this happens we do that, but it has to be in very close coordination with the Libyan government because they are the ones on the ground,” he said.
A South Korean, along with three Filipino engineers, were kidnapped by armed men off a water project site in western Libya on July 6.
A video confirming their abduction was shared on social media last week. The four addressed the camera in English while an armed guard was seen behind them.
“So far, Libya has made this their priority,” said Cayetano. “We hope they are safely returned the soonest possible time.”
Since the ouster of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was subsequently killed, Libya has been plagued by civil unrest and armed hostilities.
In 2015, a Filipino worker was beheaded by militants and a Filipina nurse was gang-raped, while another was injured in an attack on an upscale hotel in capital Tripoli, highlighting the risks being faced by some 4,000 remaining Philippine workers there.
Despite repeated appeals from the Philippine government to leave, many of them chose to stay despite the widespread violence, citing lack of jobs back home.
“This opened the eyes of everyone that there are a lot of dangers in the world, that danger comes in different forms so the Philippines, with 10 million (workers) abroad are vulnerable. The government has to do more, whether to find more jobs at home or whether finding markets where Filipinos will be safer,” Cayetano said. —JST, GMA News

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