GMA suspends OFW deployment to Nigeria after 6 Pinoys kidnapped

President Arroyo has ordered a ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Nigeria following the abduction of six Filipino seamen on Saturday by separatist rebels.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the government is exerting all efforts to secure the safe release of the Filipinos, who were working for a German-operated cargo ship that was sailing the Niger River Delta when they were abducted by a rebel group identified as the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND).

Mrs. Arroyo "is monitoring the situation as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) works in the field in coordination with the Nigerian authorities to ensure the safety and secure the release of the kidnapped victims," he said.

"In the meantime, the President has ordered a temporary halt to deployments to Nigeria until the security of our nationals is guaranteed," Bunye added.

DFA spokesman Eduardo Malaya said the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) will stop issuing authorization for companies to hire Filipino workers to work in Nigeria until further notice.

As of early yesterday, the POEA had not yet issued any advisories or warnings on its website about the possible dangers of working in Nigeria.

It listed hundreds of jobs available in the country, ranging from accountants to engineers. Most of the positions were in the oil industry.

Labor Undersecretary for employment Danilo Cruz said the "suspension applies to the processing and deployment of all landbased and seabased Filipino workers" and directed local recruiters to advise their foreign employers to undertake precautionary measures to prevent similar incidents.

He added that all labor attaches abroad were advised to notify Filipinos employed in their respective areas of the current travel restriction in Nigeria.

Unknown assailants took six Filipino oil workers and one local staffer hostage on a cargo ship owned by Baco Liner GmbH after the ship was hijacked as it was heading for the port of Warri, Delta State’s capital.

Malaya said the Philippine government was closely coordinating with Nigerian federal and state authorities to free the sailors.

Demand

The Philippine embassy in Abuja has received a report that the group holding the sailors was demanding the release of a prisoner held by the Nigerian government, he said, noting that he had no other details.

"The vessel is still being held with six Filipinos in it. We understand they are okay. (State) Governor James Ibori is already intervening on the matter," said Ozoene Sheddy, a spokesman for Delta State government.

He added that "there were 14 crew members on board but only six were taken."

According to Malaya, MEND is believed to have been behind the kidnapping.

The DFA withheld the names of the abducted Filipino workers until their families have been notified. However, POEA chief Rosalinda Baldoz said they are still confirming the identities of the six Filipino workers.

The Philippine government called on the seafarers’ abductors to release them immediately.

"The Filipinos are not engaged or involved in politics or in political matters. They are engaged in shipping, a legitimate trade, which eventually will aid in the development of local communities," the DFA said in a statement.

The Philippine embassy in Nigeria has dispatched Vice Consul Randy Arquiza and Assistance-to-Nationals Officer Camalodin Manggis to Warri, where the six seamen are being held, to assist in ongoing efforts to secure their release.

MEND, a prominent separatist group in the region, said in an e-mail message that the hostages "were taken by a community in that vicinity. The community plans to explain the reason for their abduction today."

MEND’s commander had previously declared war on all foreign oil interests in the Delta.

The Jan. 20 kidnapping brings to nine the total number of foreigners — including two Italians and one Lebanese national kidnapped by MEND last Dec. 7 — currently being held hostage in the volatile region. It comes just three months ahead of elections meant to see Nigeria’s first ever handover from one civilian administration to another.

By Sunday evening, no party had personally claimed responsibility for the abduction.

Kingsley Kuku, a militant spokesman and member of parliament in neighboring Ondo State, said his group, the Ijaw Youth Council, was "trying to intervene" between the kidnappers and government officials but that "the Ijaw people are running out of patience."

Referring to the youths holding the Filipinos, he said: "The demands they have made are the same demands that are always made. They want Shell to compensate their communities."

The kidnappers want the largest oil group in the country to make a $1.5 billion payment that they say a federal appeals court ordered it to make to the Ijaw population of neighboring Bayelsa State, Kuku said.

"The youths are saying Shell is buying time. Our attitude is to appeal to these people to allow justice to take its course," he said.

Aside from more control of the region’s rich resources and compensation for communities affected by pollution, MEND is also demanding the release of former Bayelsa State governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, jailed on corruption charges, as well as separatist leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.

The group said it aims to drive all oil companies out of the region and halt Nigeria’s oil production completely. Nigeria lost more than half a million barrels a day last year to unrest in the region.

Other local politicians questioned whether there was any link between the abducted Filipinos and Shell.

A number of groups, some of them bent on getting ransom money and others making political demands, have stepped up attacks on oil companies and related interests in the Delta recently.

Sharp rise

There has been a sharp rise in the number of kidnappings and attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta since the beginning of 2006. Nearly 100 foreign hostages, mostly oil workers, have been seized in recent months in Nigeria’s southern oil-producing region while dozens of Nigerians were killed by militants and bandits.

The people of the Delta complain that while their region generates 95 percent of Nigeria’s foreign currency earnings, they have little to show for this in terms of development or living standards.

This is the fourth time that Filipinos have been abducted in Nigeria since last year. A Filipino oil worker was kidnapped along with several foreign co-workers in February, two more were abducted in June, and three others were abducted in Southern Nigeria in August.

The three Filipinos, who were employed by a liquefied natural gas processing facility unit, were released about 10 days later following negotiations made by their employer. — With Pia Lee-Brago, Mayen Jaymalin, AP, AFP