PH hopes to recover remains of 4 OFWs abducted in Libya in 2015

Today, @PhinLibya remembers four Filipino oil workers who were taken by ISIS from the Al Ghani oil field in Libya exactly five years ago and have not been heard of since then. We pray that they would soon be found and reunited with their loved ones back home. @teddyboylocsin pic.twitter.com/RrYOi8GwnR

— Elmer G Cato (@elmer_cato) March 5, 2020

MANILA – The Philippine Embassy in Tripoli is coordinating with concerned groups in Libya to recover the remains of four Filipinos believed to have been killed after their abduction by some Islamic extremists five years ago.

The four, identified as Donato Santiago, Gregorio Titan, Roldan Blaza, and Wilson Eligue, were employees of the Austrian oil field management company Value Added Oil Services (VAOS) and were kidnapped along with five other foreign workers from the Al Ghani Oil Field on March 6, 2015.

The four were believed to have been executed but their remains were never recovered.

Embassy Chargè d Affaires Elmer Cato said the Embassy is in touch with the kin as well as the VAOS and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is leading efforts to find and recover the remains of the victims.

Cato said the bodies of the four were reportedly buried somewhere in Derna and that the ICRC has been working closely with authorities to pinpoint the exact location of the gravesite.

“We need to help the families find closure,” Cato said. “We hope our four kababayans would be found soon so we can bring them home and reunite them with their loved ones.”

He said the Embassy is hoping that the security situation in the area is now stable enough to allow the recovery and identification of the remains.

Nothing had been heard from the four Filipinos and their co-workers from Austria, the Czech Republic, Ghana, and Bangladesh, until 2017 when authorities in the city of Derna, 883 kilometers east of Tripoli, said all nine were executed by retreating Islamic State (IS) fighters.

The Derna Shura Council said a video from a laptop recovered around June 2015 from slain IS members purportedly showed the four Filipinos being shot by militants. However, their remains were never found.

The families of the four have accepted their fate and are now seeking closure.

At the time they were taken, Santiago, a heavy equipment mechanic from Mandaluyong, had been working with VAOS for 25 years.

Meanwhile, Titan was a kitchen helper from Laguna for 20 years, Blaza was a helper cook from Cabuyao, Laguna for 15 years, and Eligue was a production operator from Mariveles, Bataan, for five years.