For Filipinos, Thoughts of a Paycheck Outweigh Dangers

Joel Penaranda is desperate to get to Iraq. He is not frightened of car bombings, kidnappings or beheadings. All he wants is a job.

“It’s better to die in Iraq than to stay here and see our families die of hunger,” he says. “I am not afraid of going to Iraq.”

While the Philippine media were consumed Wednesday with the fate of a Filipino kidnapped last week in Iraq, hundreds of men like Penaranda were lined up outside an employment agency in Manila hoping for their chance to land a job in the war-torn country.

The kidnappers, members of an obscure group calling itself the Iraqi Islamic Army-Khaled bin Waleed Corps, have threatened to behead truck driver Angelo de la Cruz if the Philippine government does not withdraw its small contingent of soldiers and police by July 20.

But for these unemployed men in Manila, getting paid as much as $550 a month for service jobs at a U.S. military base in Iraq far outweighs the risks of working in a war zone. If they should die there, several noted, their families would receive insurance settlements worth a fortune in the Philippines.

“I am more worried about getting old without a job,” said John Joseph Santos, 29, an unemployed computer technician. “If I go to Iraq and die there, my family will get $35,000. If I die here, they won’t get anything.”

The kidnapping of De la Cruz has highlighted the economic stagnation and poverty that have prompted nearly 8 million Filipinos, about 10% of the country’s population, to find work overseas. Most send money home to support their families -- a major source of revenue for the country.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has come under strong public pressure to save the life of De la Cruz.

Although she has been one of the Bush administration’s staunchest allies in Asia, her government reversed course Wednesday and said it had begun pulling out its 51-member contingent.

So far, the government said, eight Filipinos had left, and it was unclear whether that would satisfy the kidnappers.

The presidential palace uncharacteristically imposed a news blackout on all government statements related to the crisis.

The move to withdraw was applauded by opponents of the war and by advocates for overseas workers.

“Mrs. Arroyo should be praised because she has shown to the nation that she is willing to stake her political capital for the sake of Angelo de la Cruz, who has come to symbolize the more than 7 million Filipinos working abroad,” said Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who lost to Arroyo in the May presidential election.

But the government decision was criticized by other Filipinos, who said that appeasing the kidnappers could jeopardize foreign workers still in Iraq and that the withdrawal would make it appear that the Philippines did not honor its commitments.

“One day we’ll need friends to back us up and stand with us, but nobody will come,” publisher Max Soliven wrote Wednesday in a column in the Philippine Star. “We sent a pitifully small group of 51 to Iraq, calling them euphemistically a ‘humanitarian contingent.’ Now we’re withdrawing them in shame.”

The unemployed men gathered outside the run-down Anglo-European Services employment office seeking jobs in Iraq were divided about the wisdom of the pullout.

“She should not withdraw the soldiers just because the terrorists’ anger has fallen on Filipinos,” said Joshua Rey Principe Padura, who spent three years driving trucks in Saudi Arabia and is hoping to work in Iraq.

“She should keep the soldiers there, and if Angelo is beheaded, that would not be Gloria’s fault.”

Padura said it was a mistake for the government to give in to kidnappers.

“They will do it again and find something else to ask for next time,” he said. “We will be forced to give in again because we gave in the first time.”

But other job hunters said the Philippines should get out of Iraq, because aligning itself with the United States had not brought any benefits.

“I think they should pull out the Filipino troops in Iraq because the Philippines has its own problems to solve,” said Santos, the computer technician. “Relying on the United States for help is not working.”