GMA off to Kuwait tonight

President Arroyo will leave for Kuwait tonight amid concern for the safety of 60,000 Filipinos there in case of war in neighboring Iraq, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye announced yesterday.

"The President will be going to Kuwait to personally look into the situation of our OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) in that country," Bunye said.

"As the situation is slowly deteriorating, the President is determined to show to our countrymen in the region that the Philippine government through its various agencies is very much aware of the needs and concerns of the OFWs and the government is prepared to respond to them," he said.

However, some Cabinet members expressed the opinion that Mrs. Arroyo’s trip is unnecessary, according to some officials who declined to be identified.

"We think that it might do more harm than good. We should not give people wrong signals at this time. But the President has made up her mind," one Cabinet official said.

"And why only Kuwait? If the objective is to boost the morale of Filipinos, then other countries in the Middle East should have been included in the trip," the official said.

Some Cabinet officials said Mrs. Arroyo’s sudden decision to visit Kuwait took them by surprise, prompting them to make rush preparations for her visit.

"We really do not know why the President decided to fly to Kuwait immediately," said another official, who also asked to remain anonymous.

Sources said Mrs. Arroyo’s visit will last only a few hours. She will immediately fly back to Manila after personally getting an assurance from the Emir of Kuwait that Filipinos in the tiny emirate will be protected.

Saudi Arabia hosts the largest number of Filipinos working in the region — close to a million, according to Philippine government statistics.

Officials said, however, that the visit was unnecessary following assurances from the governments of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that they would protect Filipinos and other foreign workers in the region if war breaks out between the United States and Iraq.

Bunye said there are 1.4 million Filipinos working in the Middle East who might be affected by an outbreak of fighting in Iraq.

Mrs. Arroyo is going to Kuwait because the country is "symbolic of the situation in the entire Middle East as it is the country closest to the flash point in the region," Bunye added.

Mrs. Arroyo will check on evacuation plans for the 60,000 Filipinos working in the emirate in case of a US-led attack on Baghdad, said former Armed Forces chief Gen. Roy Cimatu, Mrs. Arroyo’s roving envoy to the Middle East.

"You can just imagine what they will feel. It will surely boost the morale of the Filipinos," Cimatu said.

Bunye said Mrs. Arroyo will visit Filipinos at worksites and review plans put in place by the Philippine government to protect them.

"The fact that the President is going to Kuwait on short notice shows that the President is ready anytime to be where our countrymen need her," he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is trying to arrange a meeting between Mrs. Arroyo and the emir of Kuwait, Cimatu added. Officials said the Emir might meet with the President on Monday.

Bunye declined to give further details on the President’s itinerary. "We have to be careful with the details." Asked if this was due to the tension between the United States and Iraq, he replied: "You can say that."

Cimatu left last night for Kuwait on a 9 p.m. flight as part of the President’s advance party "to make some preparations for the President’s visit." With him were Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas and Bunye.

Bunye also stressed that the Philippines had not taken a stance on a possible unilateral US attack on Iraq, remarking that the government was still advocating peaceful means to settle the conflict while also supporting the UN process for Iraq to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction.

"We are also taking into consideration the plight of our OFWs in the Middle East but lest we forget, we also have an obligation to ensure their own safety and mankind’s safety against weapons of mass destruction," he said.

"Peace in the Middle East is to our national interest because we have more than a million Filipinos working there and more than 90 percent of our oil supplies come from there," Bunye said.

The President was advised to visit neighboring Saudi Arabia after visiting Kuwait but she stuck on her original plan to return to Manila, they said.

‘ME situation to stay stable’

Meanwhile, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez believes the situation in the Middle East will remain stable, judging from US President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address.

Bush said the United States will consult its increasingly skeptical allies on the crisis.

But he warned that Washington will strike with "full force and might" if Iraq does not dispose of its chemical and biological weapons which the Bush administration claims Baghdad is hiding from United Nations inspectors.

"The situation in the Middle East will be stable for a few days. Now, the next important date will be Feb. 5 because Secretary of State Colin Powell will be reporting evidence and documentation showing why they believe that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction," Golez told a separate news conference.

Mrs. Arroyo had earlier appointed Golez as her "crisis manager" in the ongoing standoff between the United States and Iraq.

Citing the assessment of Philippine diplomats in the Middle East, other officials speculated that the United States is likely to strike during the last two weeks of February or after the Haj – the holy Islamic pilgrimage season – which ends on Feb. 12.

This would avoid provoking anger from Muslims should Washington decide to make good its threat to declare war on Iraq, they said.

It would not be advisable for Washington to go to war in March because it would be too hot and windy, hampering war efforts.

"It would be difficult to wear protective suits against bio and chemical weapons because it would already be very hot by that time. And since it would be windy, bio and chemical weapons can spread quickly," one official explained. — With Aurea Calica, Mayen Jaymalin, AFP