Filipino abducted by IS put to work, says DFA

The seven Filipino oil workers abducted by suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) two months ago in Libya are alive and safe, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said, quoting reports from the Filipino community in that country, which said the extremist group has been using the workers as laborers.

“One was made a mechanic, one a computer programmer for the group’s propaganda campaigns, and another does the laundry,” Renato Villa, senior special assistant at the DFA’s Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs, said during a roundtable on Friday.

“They are safe and alive, according to those reports,” he added.

The seven workers were abducted in two incidents in February and March this year during attacks blamed on IS jihadists.

“There has been no word from the abductors since then,” Villa said, adding that Philippine Embassy officials in Libya were in constant contact with the employers of the abducted Filipinos.

“We are using the employers as intermediaries. We are trying our best to contact the abductors,” the DFA official said.

But because the abducted Filipinos are skilled workers, reports reaching the DFA indicated that the extremist group had tapped them as laborers, Villa said.

The jihadist group has been launching attacks in Libya and has taken advantage of the turmoil in the country since its strongman Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown in 2011 and competing militias began battling each other.

Although the Philippine government began its mandatory repatriation of Filipinos in Libya in July 2014, some 4,000 out of the 13,000 Filipinos working there have chosen to stay behind.