DFA requests assistance from Iraq, Libya for release of abducted Filipinos

The Philippine government has coordinated with authorities in Iraq and Libya after the Department of Foreign Affairs received reports that five Filipinos were abducted by armed men in two separate incidents last Friday.

“We are in touch with authorities in Iraq and Libya and have requested their assistance in locating and securing the release of our missing kababayan,” DFA Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano said in a statement on the department’s website on Sunday.

“The Department, through our embassies in Baghdad and Tripoli, has been informed that five of our kababayan have been taken by armed men in Iraq and Libya on Friday,” he added.

The Philippine Embassy in Baghdad said that four Filipinas were stopped by unidentified armed men along a highway in Uzem District, south of the city of Kirkuk, while they were on their way to Baghdad from Kurdistan.

Chargé d’Affaires Julius Torres said that the car driver abandoned the women, but two of them were able to escape and are now under police custody.

The other incident involved three Filipino technicians among other foreign nationals in a waterworks project 500 kilomters away from Tripoli, the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli said.

According to Chargé d’Affaires Mardomel Melicor, the armed men entered the construction site and took five foreigners and four Libyans from their quarters.

Reports said that only the Libyans and one foreigner worker were released. /ee