Cimatu asked to ensure three-month oil supply

President Gloria Arroyo has ordered former chief of staff Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu to go to the Middle East and prepare all "contingency measures" in case the U.S. attacks Iraq.

Cimatu was appointed head of a special task force to deal with problems the country could face.
"The contingency measures we have prepared are adequate to meet the needs of the Filipinos in case hostilities break out over there," Arroyo said in her regular radio programme yesterday.

"This includes immediate evacuation (of Filipinos in the Middle East) if needed," Arroyo said.
She added that Cimatu will also help in getting an assurance that the Philippines will have oil stocks for three months.

Many Filipinos have expressed the fear that oil supplies will be affected by an outbreak of war.

Arroyo said that Cimatu will find alternative oil supplies because oil exports from the Middle East will be affected for a long period in case of an outbreak of a U.S. attack on Iraq.

At the same time, the Philippine government will not support a U.S. attack on Iraq without a UN Security Council resolution backing it, said Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye.

Bunye added that the Philippine government can only lend air space for humanitarian purposes. This is the policy of Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople,said Bunye.

There are an estimated 1.5 million overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East. The Philippine government evacuated 27,000 Filipinos from the region during the 1991 Gulf War.

Only 10 of the 118 Filipinos working in Iraq have decided to be evacuated to Jordan following Arroyo's order for the immediate evacuation even ahead of an anticipated U.S. attack. This prompted government officials to say they could not force the Filipinos to leave Baghdad if they did not want to.

As a result, Iraqi Ambassador to the Philippines Salah Nouri Hitemi Al Samarmad has asked Arroyo to visit Iraq so that she can see that there is no need for evacuation.

The ambassador also hinted that the embassy would file a diplomatic protest with the Philippine government expressing displeasure over the announcement of Manila's foreign affairs office about its plan to evacuate the Filipinos to Amman in the face of the U.S. attack.