RP embassy in Baghdad closed tomorrow

The Philippines will close its embassy in Baghdad tomorrow, or three days before United Nations arms inspectors submit to the UN Security Council their official report on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said in a telephone interview yesterday the embassy will be closed because of "practical reasons" and that Ambassador to Iraq Grace Escalante has already been evacuated from Baghdad.

Escalante and eight other "non-essential" embassy personnel have been moved to Amman, Jordan.

"We are closing the embassy in Baghdad for practical reasons at the proper time because it will be a target," Golez said, noting that the four-member skeleton force, headed by the chargé d’affaires, remaining at the embassy in Iraq will likely be evacuated as well to Amman tomorrow.

"The authorization to evacuate non-essential embassy personnel in Iraq was made by President Arroyo the other day (Friday)," Golez said.

Golez admitted, how-ever, that the authorities still do not know what are the plans of about 60 Filipinos, including 20 military personnel, who are working with various UN agencies in Iraq.

He said there are 118 Filipinos in Iraq and half of them are UN employees who will have to be evacuated at the proper time.

"They still don’t know," Golez said of the Filipinos working with the UN. "There’s still no word yet on when they will be leaving Iraq. That is still being discussed."

"But a few of (the Filipinos in Iraq) are not going to be evacuated because they are already married to Iraqis and they already have their own lives there. So they (may want) to stay there," Golez added, without announcing precise numbers.

In the case of the 60,000 Filipinos in Kuwait, Golez said the Middle East Preparedness Team, headed by presidential envoy Roy Cimatu, has prepared separate contingency plans for Filipinos who would have to be evacuated and Filipinos who may stay.

"The Middle East Preparedness Team is coordinating with the Kuwaiti government because it has its own contingency plans and our plans will have to jibe with the plans of the Kuwaiti government," Golez said.

Aside from the plans of both the Philippine and Kuwaiti governments, he said companies in Kuwait employing Filipinos also have their own contingency plans.

He said half of the 60,000 Filipinos in Kuwait are employed by companies while the other half are employed by households.

During Mrs. Arroyo’s "whirlwind" trip to Kuwait last week, Kawaiti Emir Sheik Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah agreed to release some 200 Filipinos who are under Kuwaiti custody after they ran away from their employers in violation of their employment contracts.

Golez said 40 of these "runaway" Filipinos are set to leave Kuwait on Feb. 11 and arrive in the country on Feb. 12.

Filipinos working in households or companies near the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border will be evacuated to safer places in Kuwait, he added.