Philippine Labor Secretary Arturo Brion on Sunday said the government has not lifted its ban on the deployment of workers to Nigeria. The ban will remain despite offers of high salary, until the security situation in the region improves.
Brion told reporters in Manila, “We have a lot of requests because the job requirements there are really for engineers in the oil fields. The salaries are really high.”
He said that the negotiations with the kidnappers for the release of 24 Filipino held hostage in Nigeria was being handled by the Nigerian government.
“We have nothing to do with the negotiations, although I’ve been told that the 24 Filipino seafarers are all safe,” Brion said.
Brion said he had met with Nigerian charge de affaires to the Philippines, Sam Azubuike Dada Olisa, at the Department of Foreign Affairs. They discussed how to speed up the release of the kidnapped Filipinos.
The 24 were kidnapped on Jan. 20 from the German-operated Baco Liner 2 ship. The kidnappers, presumably from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, have several demands. One is the release of two of their leaders. The other is the implementation of a court decision ordering the Shell oil company to pay $1.5 billion for the degrading effects oil exploration has had on the environment and on the health of residents.
“At this time, when the hostage-taking in Nigeria remains unresolved, we need to impose the ban on the deployment of our nationals, who are always soft targets in these kidnapping incidents in the Niger Delta state,” the Filipino official stressed.
While saying the 24 Filipinos remain safe, Brion noted that the Philippine government “is relying on secondhand information,” from Nigerian government negotiator Obie Omo-Agege and from the Nigerian pilot of the Baco Liner 2.
“The chief negotiator [in] Nigeria told our embassy that he personally saw the Filipino seafarers and assured us that they are all safe and sound,” he said.