Filipino hostage in Iraq still alive: foreign department

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Thursday said in Manila that the kidnapped Filipino in Iraq, Roberto Tarongoy, is still alive and the rescue operation is also going on.

Quoting Undersecretary Rafael Seguis who heads the negotiating team in Iraq, DFA spokesman Gilbert Asuque said that the 31-year-old accountant is still alive.

"Undersecretary Seguis and his team work on reasonable assumption that Tarongoy is still being held captive by the abductors and for that reason their efforts to free him continue,"Asuque said in a radio interview.

"The instruction is to exert every effort to free Roberto Tarongoy and we will be there as long as needed," Asuque said.

Tarongoy was one of the foreign workers of a Saudi-based company in Iraq who has been in captivity for over a month since Nov. 1, the longest period in for a Filipino hostage in Iraq sincetruck driver Angelo de la Cruz was kidnapped there in July.

The Iraqi kidnappers earlier demanded a ransom of at least 12 million US dollars and the release of at least four Iraqi prisoners held by the US troops.

The US government urged the Philippine government not to give in again to the Iraqi hostage-takers after a Philippine accountantwas kidnapped early this week in Iraq.

Relations between the United States and the Philippines soured after Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo decided to pullout a small contingent of Philippine troops from Iraq in July in exchange for the release of Philippine truck driver Angelo dela Cruz who had been kidnapped and threatened with beheading by Iraqimilitants.

However, the United States would do its part to help the Philippines in realizing the release of two Philippine nationals being held hostage now.

Another Philippine national named Angelito Nayan who worked forthe United Nations is being held by the Talibans in Afghanistan.

Source: Xinhua