by Veronica Uy, InterAksyon.com - MANILA, Philippines -- Some 5,000 overseas Filipinos working inside United States military bases another 1,000 for international organizations in Afghanistan are asking the Philippine government to adopt the so-called Iraqi solution and let them stay there until the Americans leave.
Carlo Echano, who is serving as the unofficial spokesman of the OFWs in Afghanistan, is asking the Philippine government, particularly the Department of Foreign Affairs, to remove the 31 December 2011 deadline and allow them to stay there until about 2014, the expected departure date of American forces.
This new lobby is prompted by termination notices that OFWs have been receiving from their employers, telling them they only have three to five months left to work in Afghanistan.
“Unless the Philippine government acts decisively with haste, we will see the exodus of more than 5,000 Filipinos going home by December 2011, jobless, disheartened, discouraged and disappointed that your government failed to support them in this time of need,” Echano said, quoting a statement his group is set to have published as an advertisement in major newspapers.
Last 11 February 2011, the DFA allowed the OFWs inside the US bases of Kandahar and Bagram to stay until the end of the year following a US Military Command memorandum to all US and international contractors to terminate all third country nationals (TCNs) whose countries have deployment bans to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iraq is more dangerous than Afghanistan, Echano said. So why has the Philippine government adopted a less stringent option for OFWs in Iraq than for those in Afghanistan, he asked.
Echano said that most of the 6,000 OFWs in Afghanistan work inside US or NATO (North Alliance Treaty Organization) bases, where security and safety protocols are a priority.
He noted that only war-related death recorded in Afghanistan happened in 2009, when a Filipina, together with other UN workers in Kabul were killed during an attack at their guest house.
In two other instances, 12 Filipinos died in accidents: 10 Filipinos died in 2010 when their helicopter crashed due to mechanical failure; two Filipino pilots also died last year when their cargo plane crashed.
The planned paid advertisement will be addressed to President Benigno Aquino III, Vice President Jejomar Binay, senators, congressmen, the DFA, and the Department of Labor and Employment.
“Working in Afghanistan was our choice. We went to this country despite the deployment ban because the jobs in Afghanistan offer so many opportunities for us to improve our standard of living, enable us to fulfill our dreams, put a roof over our heads, send our children to good schools, and save the money that we earn in Philippine banks,” the OFWs in Afghanistan said.
“We have been regarded by our government as a problem and not as responsible citizens that have taken the initiative to help and contribute in rendering services to the development of a war-torn country, a moral obligation that our country should take, but (now) depriving OFWs from doing so,” they said.
They also asked the government to set up an embassy in Afghanistan (the Philippine embassy in Pakistan has jurisdiction over Afghanistan), so that it can provide the many consular services needed by the OFWs there.
