Filipino’s abduction in Afghanistan a hoax, OFWs say

Filipinos working in Afghanistan are convinced the abduction of a compatriot in the Central Asian state was really “an elaborate hoax” foisted by the “victim” on the media and his own relatives.

“The truth is Mark Ramos fled Kandahar [in southern Afghanistan] last January to fly to Olongapo City with over $100,000 entrusted to him by his employer Copenhagen Contractors. Everyone who knows Mark knows he stole the money and this was an embarrassing incident for OFWs,” said Filipinos in Afghanistan (FIA) spokesperson Emmanuel Geslani, who is based in Manila, in a statement.

Geslani said an FIA coordinator, Sammy Salas, would be arriving in Manila Friday with a statement on the supposed kidnapping as well as “important documents” that would show that Ramos is in the Philippines and had even convinced his own relatives that he had been abducted in Afghanistan.

According to the FIA, Ramos left the secure Kandahar Air Base on Jan. 7, 2011, without permission from Copenhagen, a Danish company handling projects for the United States military in Kandahar.

Citing an e-mail from a Ramos co-worker, Geslani said the “victim” owed money to suppliers of his former company and that was the reason he left the firm to work for Copenhagen, where he was entrusted with the position of purchaser.

He left the base on January 7, passing through the Green Zone where security is very tight, and entered the dangerous Red Zone without an escort, where he was supposedly kidnapped by unidentified persons, Geslani said.

Copenhagen started a search for him and contacted the US military base which undertook its own search. Ramos’ parents in Abu Dhabi were then apprised of the incident.

It was only this month, however, that the parents went to the ABS-CBN Middle East bureau bringing with them a videotape showing Ramos in a hooded jacket and mask saying he had been kidnapped.

Geslani, however, said a witness claimed he saw Ramos board an Ariana Airlines flight for Dubai and no one has seen him since.

Copenhagen later learned that $100,000 it had entrusted to Ramos was missing.

Geslani said Ramos’ girlfriend, who was left behind in Kandahar, contacted his mother in March and was “shocked” to learn that her boyfriend was in Olongapo “drinking with his buddies.”