PHILIPPINES: FAMILY OF A FILIPINO DRIVER ABDUCTED AND THREATENED WITH BEHEADING IN IRAQ APPEAL TO THE MANILA GOVERNMENT TO BRING HIM HOME

Record ID: 649228

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: FAMILY OF A FILIPINO DRIVER ABDUCTED AND THREATENED WITH BEHEADING IN IRAQ APPEAL TO THE MANILA GOVERNMENT TO BRING HIM HOME
  • Date: 9th July 2004
  • Summary: (U2) BUENAVISTA, PHILIPPINES (JULY 9, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. PAN: NEIGHBOURS AND FAMILY OUTSIDE FILIPINO HOSTAGE, ANGELO DE LA CRUZ'S HOUSE 0.08 2. BLACKBOARD WITH MESSAGE THAT READS "GOD SAVE ANGELO DE LA CRUZ" 0.13 3. CRYING NEIGHBOURS 0.19 4. CU: ANGELO'S DAUGHTER JUDITH DE LA CRUZ CRYING WHILE SPEAKING ON MOBILE PHONE 0.28 5. MORE OF DAUGHTER JUDITH 0.34 6. SCU: PHOTOGRAPHS OF ANGELO DE LA CRUZ 0.42 7. SON OF ANGELO POINTING TO PHOTO OF HIS FATHER 0.45 8. CU: MORE OF SON POINTING TO PHOTO 0.50 9. (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) DAUGHTER OF ANGELO DE LA CRUZ SAYING: "We are asking President Gloria to help us and have mercy on us. Please bring our father back alive to us. We need our father. We want to be with him. Have mercy on us, President Gloria. I hope you're listening." 1.28 10. CU: MORE OF PHOTOGRAPH OF ANGELO DE LA CRUZ 1.32 11. DAUGHTER JUDITH LOOKING AT PHOTOGRAPH 1.40 12. CU: MORE OF DAUGHTER JUDITH 1.46 13. NEIGHBOUR HOLDS SIGN THAT READS "SAVE ANGELO" 1.51 MANILA, PHILIPPINES (JULY 9, 2004) (REUTERS) 14. WS: PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO WALKING TO THE PODIUM 1.57 15. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO SAYING: "Like all Filipinos, my heart grieves for our countrymen whose lives are at risk in foreign lands. Let's pray for the safe and immediate release of one of our workers who was abducted in Iraq. Ambassador Roy Cimatu is in Baghdad to do what is humanely possible to secure the release of our countryman. In the meantime, I have ordered the suspension in the deployment of Filipino workers to that country." 2.40 16. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LABOUR SECRETARY, PATRICIA SANTO TOMAS SAYING: "Angelo de la Cruz was captured on his way to Iraq somewhere on a stretch of land near Fallujah area and that was where he was abducted by the Khalid Bin Waleed squadron corps." 2.58 17. MORE OF SANTO TOMAS SURROUNDED BY JOURNALISTS 3.04 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 24th July 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BUENAVISTA AND MANILA, PHILIPPINES
  • Country: Philippines
  • Reuters ID: LVA2LDOQRC5TNJONBQNHF4UUEM20
  • Story Text: The family of a Filipino driver abducted in Iraq
    appealed to the government to bring him home as militants
    threatened to behead him unless Manila withdraws its forces.



    The family of a Filipino driver abducted in Iraq
    appealed to the government on Friday (July 9) to bring him
    home as diplomats tried to contact militants threatening to
    behead him unless Manila withdraws its troops.

    Angelo de la Cruz's family said Angelo, 46, had gone to
    Saudi Arabia a year ago to work as a trailer driver, after
    being unemployed for five months.

    The next time they saw him was on a video broadcast by
    Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera, dressed in an orange
    jumpsuit and kneeling in front of three gunmen after he was
    apparently abducted while driving into Iraq from Saudi.

    His eldest daughter, 26-year-old Judith de la Cruz,
    cried while clutching a photograph of her father before he
    left.

    "We are asking President Gloria to help us and have
    mercy on us. Please bring our father back alive to us. We need our
    fat
    her. We want to be with him. Have mercy on us,
    President Gloria. I hope you're listening," she told
    Reuters from their house in Pampanga, a rural area north of
    Manila which is also Arroyo's home province and political
    base.

    Arroyo banned Filipino citizens on Thursday (July 8)
    from going to Iraq and sent her top Middle East envoy,
    former general Roy Cimatu, to Baghdad after holding an
    emergency cabinet meeting.

    She said her government was waiting to hear Cimatu's
    recommendations on how to secure de la Cruz's release, but
    government officials were already trying to contact the
    militants who abducted him.

    "Like all Filipinos, my heart grieves for our
    countrymen whose lives are at risk in foreign lands. Let's
    pray for the safe and immediate release of one of our
    workers who was abducted in Iraq. Ambassador Roy Cimatu is
    in Baghdad to do what is humanely possible to secure the
    release of our countryman. In the meantime, I have ordered
    the suspension in the deployment of Filipino workers to
    that country."
    Militants have seized dozens of foreigners in recent
    weeks and beheaded a South Korean hostage last month after
    Seoul rejected their demands to pull out 670 South Korean
    medics and engineers from Iraq and drop plans to send 3,000
    troops.

    The Philippines, a major recipient of U.S. military
    aid, sent its team last year to assist in Iraq's
    reconstruction. Manila has only committed to keep them
    there until August 20, marking a year since the initial
    deployment.

    At least 4,000 Filipino civilians are working there as
    well, many employed by contractors and working in U.S.

    military bases. Three Filipino workers have so far been
    killed in attacks by insurgents opposed to the U.S.

    military presence in Iraq.

    About 8 million Filipinos work overseas, many driven to
    leave because of a lack of jobs and low wages at home.

    Gunmen holding Angelo de la Cruz said on Wednesday (July
    7) they would kill him unless Manila, a staunch ally of the
    United States, pulls its largely symbolic force of around
    50 humanitarian workers out of Iraq within 72 hours.

    President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, facing a stiff test
    only weeks after winning a new term in May elections, said
    she could not give any details on the government's strategy
    because it might endanger De la Cruz's life.

    Labour secretary, Patricia Santo Tomas told journalists
    that De la Cruz had been captured while driving into Iraq
    from Saudi Arabia.

    "Angelo de la Cruz was captured on his way to Iraq
    somewhere on a stretch of land near Fallujah and that was
    where he was abducted by the Khalib Bin Waleed squadron
    corps," she said.



  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register