RP engineer freed in Nigeria; 'abducted' Pinay back home

After 30 days in captivity, the Filipino engineer kidnapped in Nigeria on February 6 had been released. Foreign Affairs spokesman Claro Cristobal told GMANews.TV Friday morning that Winston Helera, 51, is now safe in the custody of his employers in Abuja, Nigeria. The other Filipino reportedly kidnapped on February 7 in Port Harcourt turned out to have been back in the Philippines as early as February 10, Cristobal said. Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr said in a news conference that Josiebeth Gregorio Foroozan appeared to be in the flight manifest of Lufthansa Airlines on February 6 leaving Lagos, Nigeria for Frankfurt, Germany. "Today, I have information in our possession to show that what happened was not a kidnapping case. And this is the information that we have. No. 1, she has been 'kidnapped for the last 30 days, and for the last 30 days nobody has come forward to claim responsibility for this act and nobody has submitted any demands for their release," Conejos said. "Second," he continued, "acting on a tip from an eyewitness that she was seen in Frankfurt, Germany, our embassy in Abuja was able to get written confirmation that on Feb 6, the alleged date of her kidnapping, she was in the passenger manifest of a Lufthansa Airways flying from Lagos to Frankfurt, Germany." Conejos, who returned just recently from Nigeria, said he wanted the case to be more solid that what the Philippine embassy in Abuja gathered. On Thursday, he said, he received a confirmation from "the highest officials" of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) arrived in the Philippines February 10 on board Lufthansa Flight 788. This Bureau of Immigration confirmed the information through its immigration arrival record. Friday morning, Conejos said he received a copy of the Lufthansa passenger manifest on the "fateful evening of February 10," indicating that Foroozan was on that flight that arrived in Manila. "This is indomitable evidence to prove that there was no kidnapping that happened and that, in fact, Mrs. Foroozan is in the Philippines," Conejos. Foroozan is a native of San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. She is married to an Iranian businessman based in Nigeria and lived in Port Harcourt for 17 years. Conejos said the DFA has communicated the information to Foroozan's relatives in the Philippines who, in turn, said they have not heard of Foroozan. "Our mandate is to provide assistance to overseas Filipinos who are in distress. Mrs. Foroozan is not abroad, and obviously, based on these evidence, she is not in distress. Therefore, our mandate terminates as of today. The DFA closes the case of Mrs. Foroozan as of today," he stressed. Conejos said the case of the alleged abduction of Foroozan will be referred to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to establish her whereabouts and find out what really happened to her. Twenty-four Filipino seafarers who were abducted by militants on January 20 in Niger Delta were released after 24 days in captivity. All 24 seamen returned to the country on February 17. Armed men blocked the convoy carrying Helera in Owerri on his way to Port Harcourt to catch his flight to Lagos for his quarterly vacation. He is an instrumentation engineer of Netco Dietsmann, the Nigerian arm of Monaco-based Shell oil services. Cristobal said Helera’s wife Ana, mother Flordeliza, children Lopel and Stephanie, sister Cristina Revillosa and brother Mauro were brought to the DFA offices Friday morning to receive the pleasant news about the engineer’s release after 30 days in captivity and thank the DFA for the efforts in working for the release of Winston. Conejos said Winston will soon be reunited to his family in the Philippines. He said his kidnappers had not been identified as a group, but he would assume the Nigerian government knows who they are. “All negotiations were done by the Nigerian government. As far as I know, we did not pay any ransom," Cristobal said. In the case of Foroozan, the DFA official said he could not understand the claim of her family that she was abducted. She was even publicized to be the first woman kidnapped by militants in Nigeria. Her sister Jane Gregorio claimed her sister’s Iranian husband, Manoucher Foroozan, telephoned her on the evening of February 7 to inform the family of the abduction. She said Josiebeth, 37 years old, was taken near a supermart and a bank some two kilometers away from her home in Port Harcourt. She also said her sister’s family in Port Harcourt received death threats from Josiebeth’s abductors. Grogorio said Foroozan told her that her sister managed to narrate through her cell phone how she was kidnapped. Later, she said Foroozan told her the abductors communicated to him using Josiebeth’s cellphone, and claimed she fought back and jumped off a creek with no trace of her body. Foroozan's family said they did not she was dead, as claimed by her abductors in a phone call to her husband. From the start, the DFA has considered Foroozan’s abduction as a “police case." Interviewed on ANC, Gregorio said Foroozan has not contacted them. She claimed their family was not aware of her sister's whereabouts. Nonetheless, she said she was glad to hear that her sister is alive. She said she must have valid reasons for not getting in tough with her family. Gregorio refused to comment on possible reasons for her sister's alleged kidnapping. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo promptly ordered concerned authorities to stop the deployment of Filipino workers bound for Nigeria following the Jan 20 abduction of the 24 seafarers in Warri, the capital of Delta State. The deployment ban has not been lifted despite clamor from workers bound for Nigeria and recruiters sending Filipinos to the African state. Recently, Conejos reported that there were 207 Filipino workers bound for Bonny Island who were stranded in the Philippines as a consequence of the deployment ban. Of the 207 stranded Filipinos, 88 are on vacation and 119 are on requisition or on process and are unable to leave because of the ban. They are among the 960 Filipinos working in Bonny Island, most of them in supervisory positions. - GMANews.TV