RP to seek 30,000 jobs in Iraq for Pinoys

A special Philippine government task force is set to leave for Kuwait to seek more than 30,000 jobs for Filipinos in Iraq’s reconstruction.

Jun Campillo, spokesman of the task force created by President Arroyo, said the group would be offering services as sub-contractors to British and US firms that are likely to get the contracts in post-war Iraq.

"(Former foreign affairs secretary) Roberto Romulo, task force head, is planning to go to Kuwait to see the representatives of the prime contractors of the Americans and the British... to offer our (sub-contractors) for Iraq and if he is given permission, he will proceed to Baghdad to see (US interim administrator Jay) Garner," he said.

Campillo said in a radio interview the Philippines, along with other countries in the "coalition of the willing," were "positioning and trying to get contracts for their countrymen," following the US-led victory in Iraq.

Asked how many jobs the Philippines hoped to land, Campillo said that in the 1980s, at the height of the labor boom in the Middle East, the Philippines had 30,000 workers in Iraq.

"We hope that we could exceed this figure," he said, citing the skilled manpower and technical abilities of Filipino workers.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said earlier this month that Filipinos were expected to get some 100,000 jobs in the reconstruction of Iraq after supporting the US-led campaign to topple Saddam Hussein.

Philippine charge d’affaires to Iraq Grace Escalante said she would travel to Jordan in preparation for the reopening of the country’s embassy in Baghdad.

Meawhile, Sen. Teresa Aquino-Oreta urged the government yesterday to drop its plan to send a humanitarian mission to Iraq and instead put the money for deployment to an emergency fund to be set up by the Association of Southeast Nations to fight the killer virus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

In a statement, Oreta said Mrs. Arroyo would make a "more forceful and persuasive pitch" for the anti-SARS fund before the ASEAN if she would back up her proposal with an initial contribution of P400 million.

But Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. said the Arroyo Administration should suspend the operation pending a Senate inquiry into the government’s financial capability to undertake the humanitarian mission and assurance of legal and diplomatic protection for the Filipino volunteers.

Villar said he has filed a bill seeking to amend Republic Act 123 creating the Bureau of Quarantine to allow mandatory quarantine or isolation of persons found to be infected with communicable diseases like SARS after the Department of Health has declared the existence of an epidemic.

Villar said the government should use the P16 million monthly or almost P100 million for six months to be spent for the mission to help fund the anti-SARS campaign.

"The money could be better used to help prevent the further spread of SARS and to assist war evacuees in Mindanao," he said in a statement.

Villar said each senator should contribute P500,000 and every congressman P200,000 to the government’s anti-SARS campaign fund.

The government plans to pay each of the 300 medical volunteers to Iraq a monthly allowance of U$1,000.