By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 12:16:00 01/14/2008
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Close this MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) Barely a month after an oil tanker with Filipino seafarers exploded in Port Harcourt, Nigeria last December, another oil tanker with 21 Filipino seafarers exploded in the same place Sunday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Monday.
DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos said all 21 are safe. He said the Philippine embassy in Nigeria was arranging the repatriation of the seamen.
“We are sending a consular team of two members from Abuja to Port Harcourt,†he said, quoting Philippine Ambassador to Nigeria Masaranga Umpa, who phoned him the sketchy report.
Giving more details and correcting earlier information, DFA spokesman Claro Cristobal said the Filipino seafarers are crew members of M/T Golden Lucy which caught fire in Port Harcourt between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. January 11 (Nigeria time, which is about five hours behind the Philippines).
“[All 21] are safe and currently billeted in a local hotel. The cause of the fire is being investigated,†he said.
Conejos said he was coordinating with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration on means to tighten the implementation of the deployment ban to the oil-rich African country.
“We should have, among other things, better dissemination of the ban because some agencies claim they do not know about the ban,†he said.
Asked if his office will ask POEA to ban these manning agencies from sending Filipino seafarers, he said that it is entirely up to the POEA, which has a set of guidelines in dealing with recruiters.
DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo maintained that the total deployment ban in Nigeria and in the countries of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon remains due to the unstable security condition there.
“The total ban continues…Our aim is to protect our citizens and keep them out of harm’s way. There are other places they can go to where the risks [to their lives] are not as great,†he said.
Last December 19, an oil tanker carrying 19 Filipino seafarers and docked in Port Harcourt was attacked by militants. One of them died of the severe burns he sustained.
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