Gov’t bans deployment of Pinoy drivers to Iraq

President Arroyo suspended yesterday the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who intend to work as drivers in Iraq.

The temporary ban was among the recommendations of a report submitted to the president by special envoy Roy Cimatu, head of the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee (PMEPC) and the Team Iraq task force.

While the latest Filipino casualty in the Iraq conflict was the victim of a mortar attack on a US military base, drivers are considered to be at greater risk than workers employed inside such facilities.

The first Filipino casualty was a 53-year-old truck driver, Rodrigo Reyes, who was killed late last month after his convoy was ambushed by insurgents near the Kuwaiti border.

Killed just last week at Camp Anaconda was Raymond Natividad, an employee of Prime Projects International (PPI).

Natividad’s death appears to be the driving force behind the requests for voluntary repatriation by 100 OFWs in Camp Anaconda. The OFWs, who will leave the camp in a few days, are among the 250 who have filed their resignation papers with PPI and have asked to be returned to the Philippines.

A total of 1,300 OFWs work inside Camp Anaconda.

The OFWs will be brought by chartered plane to Dubai, where they can take a commercial plane to Manila.

In her official statement, the President said she approved Cimatu’s recommendation to allow the other OFWs in Camp Anaconda to continuing working there provided their living quarters are moved to a safer location inside the camp.

She justified the decision not to order a general evacuation of OFWs from Iraq on the need to maintain good relations with their employers.

In his report, Cimatu said the security situation in places where OFWs are deployed "ranges from fluid to volatile."

He identified five areas in Iraq as possible processing centers for voluntary repatriation, namely Mosul, Kirkuk, Tikrit, Al Fallujah and Al Ramadi.

Cimatu said he had met with Natividad’s employer in Amman, Jordan.

There he was assured by Neil Helliwell, managing director of PPI, that Natividad’s family will receive $35,000 as insurance coverage. The money adds to an undisclosed amount his family received when a company representative called on them to inform them his death.

Helliwell, who boasted that his company employs some 3,800 Filipinos in different US bases in Iraq, said that his company prefers Filipino workers because of its long association with them, dating back to the first Gulf War in 1991.

He credited Filipino workers for their "invaluable help" in the construction of the controversial Guantanamo prison facility in Cuba.