2 Pinoy workers killed in Iraq

Two Filipino workers were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq last week, officials said yesterday.

United States authorities in Iraq reported that the men died on Nov. 11 "as a result of an improvised explosive device" in eastern Iraq, Chargé d’Affaires Ariz Severino Convalecer of the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait said.

The fatalities were identified by the embassy as Ponciano Men-Men Loque and Benjie Bongolan Carreon. Their deaths brought to five the number of Filipinos killed in Iraq.

The remains of Loque and Carreon were flown to Kuwait on a US air force C-130 cargo plane at 10:30 last night and will be repatriated next week, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a statement.

Convalecer said the remains of Loque and Carreon are scheduled to arrive in Manila on Qatar Airways flight QR 646.

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) deputy administrator Angelo Jimenez said Philippine labor officials are coordinating with Kuwaiti authorities for the quick repatriation of Loque and Carreon.

Jimenez said Loque and Carreon were hired by the Kuwait-based South Korea Trading Co., which is engaged in the sale of imported goods and items.

Based on OWWA records, Carreon was an active OWWA member, but Loque’s OWWA membership lapsed and he was unable to renew it because he was out of the country for several years.

The DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs has contacted Loque and Carreon’s next of kin and is coordinating with them regarding arrangements for the repatriation of the slain overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said the remains of Loque and Carreon are at the mortuary of the Al Sabah Hospital in Kuwait and being autopsied.

While Sto. Tomas said the Philippines has suffered relatively few casualties in Iraq, she said that "for as long as we feel our workers are not safe there, we will not be sending workers to Iraq."

"I think it is already impossible to lift the (deployment) ban, considering the situation in Iraq at this time," she said.

Meanwhile, the DFA said no Filipinos were killed or injured in another roadside bombing in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad Monday.

The DFA said one of the Filipino security personnel employed by DYN Corp. International told Philippine embassy officials that two of their South African security escorts were killed when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb as it approached a road leading to the Assassin’s Gate, the entrance to Baghdad’s International Zone. This area has been a target of frequent attacks by Iraqi insurgents.

DYN Corp. International employs 45 OFWs, mostly as security guards and personal security escorts for other expatriates.

In August, Filipino engineer Federico Samson was killed in an ambush in the town of Kirkuk.

The Philippine embassy in Iraq, which recently transferred operations to Amman, Jordan after incidents of violence and kidnappings of diplomats and foreigners escalated in the strife-torn country, said Samson was killed in an ambush believed to have been carried out by Iraqi militants.

The slain Filipino engineer was working with US-based Lucent Technologies Inc. OFWs Pedro Galila and Roderic Tayo were also wounded in the ambush, the Philippine embassy in Iraq reported.

The DFA said the violence, kidnappings and deaths of foreigners in Iraq justify the Philippine government’s decision not to lift the deployment ban imposed last year after the abduction of Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz. — Pia Lee-Brago, Mayen Jaymalin, AP