Statement of Labor Secretary Arturo D. Brion on the release of 8 Filipino hostages in Nigeria
22nd May 2007
The reported release of eight (8) Filipino workers and three (3) Korean executives of Daewoo Engineering and Construction Company in Nigeria was confirmed to me by Labor Attache Rodolfo M. Sabulao who had been closely monitoring developments on the hostage-taking incident.
The Philippine Labor Department is grateful to our team from the Philippine Embassy and its local counterpart in Nigeria, particularly the local government of the region where the abduction occurred, for handling the negotiation that led to the eventual release of the hostages.
I already instructed Administrator Marianito Roque of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to effect a profiling of these Filipino hostages so that appropriate assistance would be afforded to them immediately, by their employers and by the Philippine government through the OWWA.
Despite the release, we will not lift the ban on the deployment of Filipino workers in Nigeria yet pending thorough assessment on the general situation in that African country by the Department of Foreign Affairs.