One of the calls I got, related to the stories on Filipinos working as armed personnel for US private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, was from a soldier assigned in Mindanao.
He was asking for the contact numbers of the local representatives of Blackwater USA and Triple Canopy. Blackwater USA employs Filipino armed personnel to secure US state and defense officials, offices, and facilities in Afghanistan. Triple Canopy employed Filipinos in Iraq in 2004 also to secure American officials and facilities.
There is a ban on Filipinos going to Iraq but none to Afghanistan.
I tried to talk him out of his plan,Coach Handbags, telling him there must be less dangerous jobs available for him in the country. He replied, “Kesa naman sasali ako sa kidnap- for- ransom gang o sa panghu-hold up ng bangko, di pupunta na ako sa Iraq. Mas malaki pa ang kikitain. (Instead of joining kidnap-for-ransom gangs or bank holdups I might as well go to Iraq. I would be earning a lot.)
As to the dangers in Iraq, he said: “Sa Mindanao delikado rin kami. Yung kinikita ko doon halos mabuhay ang pamilya ko. Kapag mamatay ako, maliit lang ang makuha nila sa death benefits. (In Mindanao,gucci replica bags, we are also in danger. What I earn can barely sustain my family’s needs. If I get killed there, my family would only get a measly amount as benefits from my death.)
I didn’t give him the numbers of Blackwater and Triple Canopy explaining to him that I don’t want to be instrumental in his misfortune.
I have no doubt that given the caller’s desperation, he will be able to find the contact numbers of Private Military Contractors (PMC) recruiting former soldiers and policemen to Iraq and Afghanistan.
A source with contacts with the Virginia-based Triple Canopy said recruitment by PMCs is usually by word-of-mouth. He said “you’ll be amazed at the number of people who are applying.”
The source called my attention to my report last June 13 that 300 Filipinos are currently working under Triple Canopy in Iraq. He said, “It’s 80 percent correct.”
I asked him about the erroneous 20 percent. He said, “It’s not 300, it’s 180.” He also said that Triple Canopy stopped the deployment of Filipinos in Iraq when the ban was imposed following the kidnapping of truck driver Angelo de la Cruz in July 2004.
But he knows that many Filipinos continue to work with PMCs in Iraq. In 2004, there were some 4,000 Filipinos working in Iraq, mostly doing administrative services in American military camps. Two years after the ban on travel to Iraq was imposed, the number of Filipinos increased to more than 7,000. Last year, Robert Tarongoy, working as accountant for a Saudi company in Baghdad, was kidnapped and was released only after the Arroyo government paid $1.4 million.
The source scoffs at the ban imposed by the Philippine government, saying nobody bothers whether your passport has a stamp “Not valid for travel to Iraq.” He said Filipinos leaving Manila for work in Iraq do not tell immigration officials they are going there. They leave Manila as tourists, first for Bangkok, then to Jordan or Dubai, their jump-off point for Baghdad.
A TV Patrol report by Dindo Amparo, ABS-CBN Middle East bureau chief, revealed that Filipino mercenaries in Iraq are hired from Dubai. The pay ranges from $1,000 to $2,000 a month with huge insurance benefits in case of death.
The source, who had worked as PMC in Iraq, takes issue with the derogatory term “mercenaries”. “We are serving a function and that is to secure American officials and facilities. We are trying to put order in Iraq. We are not bad people.”
Providing security for American officials and facilities in war zones is a hazardous job. In March 2004, four Blackwater personnel were killed in Fallujah, Iraq escorting delivery of food supplies.
In a CNN special report last Tuesday, Nic Robertson interviewed a female private military contractor whose men guard trucks carrying gravel for military bases in Iraq. She said the route is “strewn with roadside bombs targeting US and Iraqi forces and those who support them.”
One mercenary said, “If we get ambushed and cut off, then yes, we are going to fight back and push through. That’s what we get paid to do – protect the clients, protect the asset – that’s our job. It sounds crude, but basically our job is to be a bullet sponge.”
A former Triple Canopy employee, who was a bomb disposal expert in the Philippine Army, related in a complaint that never got to be filed in court: “Although we were essentially assigned to provide security to American embassy personnel in Basra, Iraq who were stationed in a camp, the camp itself became the object of constant enemy fire, more specially mortar attacks and the risks to life and limb were real and imminent.
“As we continued to stay in our station,Replica prada, we realized that we were actually engaged or were actually involved in the war trying to repulse the attacks in the camp.”
CNN said the death rate among the 25,000 or so private military contractors in Iraq is higher than that in US military forces.
The business of providing safety in the world’s most dangerous environments has become a booming industry worth more than $100 billion in contracts for PMCs. Some Filipino entrepreneurs have acquired job contracts being outsourced by the PMCs.
Blackwater USA Philippine representative Romy Redilicia believes that he is helping fellow Filipinos by providing them opportunities to earn big money. A source with contacts with Triple Canopy said, “Every one has a right to live.”
Given the dismal economic situation in the country, many of our lowly-paid soldiers and policemen do not see staying put in the Philippines as a safer and better alternative. As the soldier who called me up said, “Hanap buhay lang po ito Ma’am”. (I’m just trying to earn a living.)
We have reached a situation where many of our people have to risk death in order to live. It’s sad.
The above photo was sent by Joseph B, who was in Iraq working for Dyncorp, a PMC. He came back last year.
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