Filipinos flocking to Iraq despite ban

Credit it to the "old Filipino diskarte," says a lawmaker.

Some 6,053 enterprising Filipinos have managed to get jobs in war-torn Iraq despite a government ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), according to officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

"Ang Pilipinong nagigipit, kahit sa Iraq sisirit," said Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., chairman of the House appropriations committee that conducted a hearing on the DFA’s proposed 2005 budget last week in which government officials admitted the figures.

Judging from this fact alone, Andaya said "government barriers seem to be no match to a jobless Filipino’s determination to find work even in a war zone."

He noted that statistics do not include drivers like Angelo dela Cruz, whose near-death abduction in the hands of militants in Iraq prompted President Arroyo to impose the government ban.

"The result is that there are now more Filipinos in Baghdad that there are registered voters in the capital town of Basco, Batanes," said Andaya, who also gave a breakdown of Filipino workers spread among eight areas in the Middle Eastern country.

As per DFA figures, Filipinos work even in danger zones in Iraq like Fallujah, Nasiriyah and Tikrit — the hometown of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"Almost all Filipinos are working in US-forces secured camps for civilian workers doing support work for the American military," Andaya said.

There are 2,500 Filipinos in Camp Victory, 1,450 in Camp Anaconda, 1,000 in Camp Cooke (Taji), 400 in Mosul, 300 in Tikrit, 52 in Baquba, 51 in Nasiriya and 300 in Fallujah, Ramadi, Al-Assad and Sadr City.

"The DFA census does not include Filipino drivers who dangerously dash in and out of Iraq from surrounding countries in supply convoys escorted by US soldiers," Andaya said.

He lamented the fact that Filipinos are paid less than $12,000 a year while their American counterparts receive from $80,000 to as much as $100,000 per year, even if they all face the same risks.

To which, DFA officials explained, that "maybe the Americans were skilled technicians while our OFWs were relegated to routine jobs of laundry, mess hall assistants, servers and waiters."

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) earlier reported that at least 120 OFWs who had previously been allowed to stay in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates were able to sneak into Iraq.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said the government agencies concerned are already investigating how the OFWs were able to enter Iraq and are in the process of identifying the parties liable for violating the deployment ban.

Sto. Tomas said the Philippine embassy and labor officials in Iraq are reviewing their lists of Filipinos working in American military camps in Iraq to determine the real number of OFWs who entered Iraq illegally.

The President issued an order on July 10 banning the deployment of OFWs to Iraq after Iraqi insurgents abducted De la Cruz and threatened to behead him unless the Philippine government pulled out its small humanitarian and peacekeeping contingent.

The government pulled the troops out of Iraq a month before the Aug. 20 end of the peacekeepers’ tour of duty and De la Cruz was released unharmed by his captors.

However, the Philippines was harshly criticized for this capitulation by the United States, Australia and other countries that were part of the US-led coalition in Iraq.