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Pinoy carpenter killed, another injured in Afghanistan mortar attack


(Updated 2:14 p.m) MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino carpenter was killed, while another one was injured last March 20 in a mortar attack at a military camp in Afghanistan, the Department of Foreign Affairs reported on Tuesday. Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr. told reporters that the Filipino was working in the Kandahar airbase, southeast of Kandahar City, when attackers fired mortar shells into the camp. Citing reports from the Philippine Embassy in Pakistan, Conejos identified the Filipino as Norbert Malana Hobayan, a carpenter hired by Recon International, a United Arab Emirates-based construction firm. Another Filipino, Rolando Tricenio, suffered injuries in he same attack and is now recuperating at the Kandahar airbase. Conejos said he would investigate how the two entered Afghanistan despite an existing deployment ban on Filipino workers to the conflict-ridden country. "We want to know how a Filipino was able to enter Afghanistan and how the construction firm was able to send a Filipino [there] because there is a ban," Conejos said. The Philippines stopped sending OFWs to Afghanistan following the US-led invasion of the Middle East country in 2001. Aside from Afghanistan, Filipinos are also barred from entering Nigeria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon for work. Earlier this year, a country representative of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) contractor has announced that thousands of Filipino workers are needed to support NATO/United States Department of Defense (US-DOD) military installations in Afghanistan. Kandahar has the largest military installation in Afghanistan. "I would like to remind everybody that we have a current ban on deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Afghanistan. Condition in that area is quite unstable. We urge the public to take the advice of the govt that it is dangerous to travel to Afghanistan," Conejos said. - GMANews.TV
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