THE Departments of Labor and Employment
(DOLE) and Foreign Affairs (DFA) are now looking at a possible
ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Somalia following a
series of abduction incidents involving seafarers who pass
through the coast of Somalia.
The DFA had earlier proposed the ban to the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration but the latter had
said it was at a loss on how it can implement the ban short of
telling all Filipino seafarers to keep off all waters.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita yesterday
said Malacañang is awaiting the results of the DOLE and DFA
study including their recommendations on the matter.
But DFA undersecretary Esteban Conejos, who
was at the airport to welcome back nine Filipino seafarers who
were released by pirates last Sept. 11, said such a ban has
already been dropped because it is very difficult to limit the
movements of sea-based workers.
He said government had instead issued a
directive to avoid piracy, including staying within the sealane
corridor, not venturing within the 200 NM zone off Somalia,
traveling in convoy, and basic survival technique like speaking
in the vernacular and not offending the kidnappers.
He said the international community has also
issued a separate directive for intensified naval patrol,
interdiction of pirates and a meeting of manning agencies to
come up with ways to prevent being hijacked in the high seas.
Conejos admitted that government is helpless
in preventing the continued abduction of Filipinos in the Gulf
of Aden where hundreds of ships pass, manned mostly by Filipino
seafarers.
Nine Filipino seamen planed home yesterday
following their release from captivity last Sept. 11, while 80
other Filipinos remain in the hands of Somali pirates, including
the 26 who were taken last Sept. 17 after the Greek-owned
freighter MT Centauri was hijacked at the Horn of Africa.
Conejos said 130 Pinoys have been kidnapped
since 2006. Government figures showed that there were 239
attacks in the Gulf and 188 taken hostage but with only 15 of
these pirate attacks resulting in murder.
Chief mate Antonio Calubiran, 43, from
Antique and one of the nine who came home yesterday after being
abducted last Aug. 21, said he has been a sailor for the last 19
years. He said the pirates easily overtook them using two
speedboats because their ship was heavily loaded.
Calubiran said they were taken to Somalia, a
two-day trip, and mixed with other ships’ crew who were all
waiting to be ransomed.
The Gulf of Aden is located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen,
the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and Somalia in the
Horn of Africa. The Gulf of Aden is a vital waterway for
shipping, especially for Persian Gulf oil, making it an integral
waterway in the world economy. Approximately 11 percent of the
world’s seaborne petroleum passes through the Gulf of Aden on
its way to the Suez Canal to regional refineries. – Jay
Chua and Jocelyn Montemayor
