‘Why did they kill even Pinoys?’

A terrorist’s head for a Filipino’s life.

The grieving and angry widow of driver Joelly Giray said the people who killed her husband in Al-Khobar City in Saudi Arabia over the weekend should be beheaded for shooting an innocent, unarmed man.

Giray’s widow, Elumineda, 52, said, "There was no foreboding that this would happen. I am angry at the terrorists who killed him. They should be beheaded. They don’t choose who they attack. If their enemies are Americans, why kill even Filipinos?"

Another worker, Camilo Tinaco, may be given some recognition by the government for helping his compatriots hide during the hostage crisis, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said. Tinaco works as a receptionist at the Oasis complex.

President Arroyo has condemned the attack, saying in a statement that "the government condemns the latest terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia in the strongest terms and considers this a direct assault on the civilized world."

The President also expressed her sympathy for the families of the Filipino victims, who were among nearly one million OFWs in the Middle East.

The President said "all the necessary assistance would be extended" to the families of the slain OFWs and to the OFWs wounded in the attack in Al-Khobar.

She also urged OFWs in the region to "continue to work with their employers and host governments to ensure their own safety and security."

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye also said Mrs. Arroyo instructed Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Albert to make sure all Philippine embassy staff in Saudi Arabia and other Middle East states coordinate with special envoy for the Middle East Roy Cimatu in assessing the security situation in their areas of jurisdiction.

Shot in the Back

When suspected al-Qaeda terrorists laid siege Saturday to the Oasis residential resorts complex that hosts the offices of several oil companies in the Saudi Arabian city of Al-Khobar, Giray was with another Filipino identified as Arnold Mendoza, said Giray’s 25-year-old daughter, Sharon.

"They ran in opposite directions. Mendoza went to the upper floors, while my father decided to go out of the building. He must have thought that it would be safer outside, thinking that the terrorists were already in the building," she said.

"He was shot twice in the back" by terrorist lookouts posted outside the building.

Twenty-two people, three of them Filipinos, were killed, and three other Filipinos were hurt in the attack. Saudi commandos stormed the complex to rescue the hostages Sunday.

Giray, 52, was a company driver for Arsan Resource Science Unlimited since 1991 and his good track record at work allowed him to extend his contract.

It was by sheer hard work that Giray provided his family with a home in Makati City and provided the funds for his two daughters, Lydia, 27, and Sharon to finish their computer courses.

His youngest child, Louie, 22, has two more years to go before completing his computer engineering course.

"I have only two years of school before I finish college. I wish he were here. I planned to go abroad and work in Saudi Arabia, but I’ve changed my mind, " Louie said.

Sharon said her father was a kind, family-oriented man, adding that he was "careful with money and everything he saved up was for our family alone. He thought of nothing but us back home."

Surprises of Love

Giray was also a man who loved to surprise his family with gifts. The last surprise was the final payment he made on a house and lot in General Trias, Cavite — he had been making mortgage payments on the property for several years.

"When he came home for a month-long vacation, he told our mother that he has fully paid for the house and it was his birthday gift to her (on Jan. 23) so we won’t have anything more to worry about," Sharon said.

Giray was also saving up to buy a Toyota Tamaraw FX or a passenger jeepney to provide additional income for the family, but that dream was not to be.

The bad news was delivered to the Giray family by Mendoza on Saturday, at 7 p.m. He told them Giray had been shot and was confined at the King Fahd University Hospital.

"Since then, we had trouble sleeping, even his one-year-old granddaughter, Sophia Isabel, was crying constantly and she is not like that," Sharon said.

Relatives and friends who were also based in Saudi Arabia kept the Giray family posted on his condition. He died of his wounds Sunday morning and his family was informed of his death at 3 p.m. Manila time.

Elumineda said she has no plans to go to Saudi Arabia to fetch her husband’s body. "I would not be able to stand the pain," she said, adding that Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Virgilio Angelo visited them Sunday evening and promised the immediate repatriation of Giray’s remains.

Dreams of Home

In Angeles City in Pampanga, another OFW family grieves its loss. Accountant Feliciano Dizon was based in Al-Khobar and he dreamed of coming home by February next year to finally buy the lot on which his family’s home stands.

Dizon also planned to stay in the Philippines with four of his five children and watch over them as they completed their studies, even as his wife Amalia decided to stay in Al-Khobar with their youngest daughter.

"Mama called us up. She said tatang (father) is gone," said a weeping Rose Ann, 12 as she held up a picture of her father. She is the third daughter of the couple. The other Dizon children are Ricardo, 21; Jeremy, 15; Catherine, 6; and Jacob, 2.

Ricardo is married and Jeremy and Catherine are now in the care of their maternal grandparents, Ricardo and Angustia Pineda, both 68.

Dizon served as a deacon of the Iglesia ni Cristo in Barangay Lourdes East in Angeles City, where he is remembered as "a very decent person."

He "got promoted only recently and his American employers seemed to have been so impressed by his efficiency that they offered him a home for his family in Al-Khobar," Ricardo said.

It was because of that offer that Amalia, a housewife, decided to leave for Al-Khobar with Catherine to see the home she and her husband were to move into come February.

The other Dizon children were to continue their studies in the Philippines, Angustia said, since it would be very expensive to send them to the international school in Al-Khobar.

Dizon had high hopes for his children, Rose Ann said, adding that he had wanted her and Jeremy to take up medicine — a prospect that has now dimmed with Dizon’s death.

Now, Amalia’s return journey is bitter one, as she brings her husband back for burial in his homeland.

Repatriation and Assistance

DOLE Information Service director Nicon Famerang said the bodies of Giray, Dizon and Mariano Cabasag, 24, are now in the care of the Saudi authorities, but Philippine labor officials are coordinating for the speedy release and repatriation of the remains.

Angelo also said OFWs who are bonafide OWWA members are entitled to insurance and burial benefits amounting to P220,000, over and above any benefits they may receive from their foreign employers.

The OWWA is also providing assistance to the Filipinos who were wounded in the Al-Khobar attack.

According to DFA spokeswoman Julia Heidemann, OFW Marvin Perino underwent surgery for his injuries at the Saat Medical Center and is confined in the intensive care unit (ICU). Heidemann said the prognosis for Perino is good.

Alberto Costales and Jimwel Taruza, meanwhile, suffered minor injuries and have been released from the hospitals where they were confined, Heidemann said. The Philippine embassy in Riyadh is also assisting the OFWs, she said. - Marichu Villanueva, Sandy Araneta, Mayen Jaymalin, Evelyn Macairan, Jose Rodel Clapano, Marvin Sy and Ding Cervantes