"I expect Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia also to be actively looking for opportunities in Iraq," Ople said. "We will work in tandem if that is their desire. They are suddenly competitors for opportunities even when some of them had opposed the war in Iraq."
Ople said defense department officials are discussing with the US military the "specific participation" of the Philippines in Iraq’s post-war reconstruction.
He said officials of the Philippine embassy are also meeting with representatives of major international contractors in Washington to determine the appropriate role for Philippine companies and Filipino workers.
Before the first Gulf War in 1991, 400,000 Filipinos had been working in various capacities in Iraq, Ople added.
Thousands of Filipino workers are expected to be deployed to Iraq soon.
Acting Labor and Employment Secretary Manuel Imson said the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) will set up a "special hiring desk" to speed up the processing of employment contracts for Iraq bound Filipinos.
"The government is treating the deployment of workers to Iraq not as ordinary employment contracts but a special one so we are fast-tracking the processing of all their required documents," he said.
Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said yesterday the Philippines expects the US to give priority to Filipinos who want to take part in the reconstruction and the handing out of humanitarian assistance to Iraq.
"We hope that the efforts of the Philippine government would be recognized and that we will not be the last for any opportunity for the reconstruction of Iraq," he said.
Bunye told Radio Mindanao Network it is sad that China now wants to be allowed to send skilled workers to Iraq although it did not support the US invasion of Iraq as the Philippines had done.
"That’s human nature," he said.
In an interview, Imson said the "special hiring desk" will serve as a one-stop shop where departing Filipino workers could get all the required documents for the processing of their employment contracts.
"We should be able to deploy our workers fast enough so that foreign construction firms would be lured to employ Filipinos in the rehabilitation of Iraq," he said.
Imson said he expects Filipino workers to be deployed and hired in Iraq soon, even before the American-led war could finally come to an end.
"We expect to deploy OFWs to Iraq as soon as there are vacancies and not necessarily after the war," he said. "Some parts of Iraq under the control of coalition forces would soon be reconstructed."
Filipino workers would be deployed in areas that are already under the control of coalition troops so their lives would not be endangered, he added.
Despite the war in Iraq, remittances from overseas Filipino workers rose by 5.5 percent during the first two months of this year, as compared to the same period a year ago.
Figures from the Department of Labor and Employment show the estimated eight million Filipinos abroad sent home a total of $1.14 billion in January and February, or half a million dollars more than last year’s $1.08 billion.
Imson said the growth in remittances could be attributed to the continuing increase in the deployment of Filipino workers to various countries despite the war.
"We have gone through major problems and crisis in the past but we have never experienced a significant drop in the remittances from Filipino workers abroad," he said.
Government statistics indicate that the number of Filipino workers deployed abroad in the first quarter of the year rose by two percent, as compared to last year, he added. — With reports from Mayen Jaymalin, Delon Porcalla