¡¡¡¡ MANILA, Sep. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Over 100 Filipinos in Iraqi capital Baghdad are to evacuate to Amman, Jordan, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople Wednesday told President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

¡¡¡¡Ople has ordered the immediate evacuation of Filipinos working in Iraq as the impending full-scale attack on Iraq by the United States looms, the Philippine News Agency reported.

¡¡¡¡In a memorandum sent to Arroyo, Ople explained that "the Philippine government has no final and clear information as to the looming effect of the US attack, it is better to evacuate the 118 Filipinos in Baghdad."

¡¡¡¡Ople, however, clarified that the evacuation order applies only to Filipinos in Baghdad, including nonessential embassy personnel and their dependents, and not to all Filipinos working in the Middle East.

¡¡¡¡"Any contingency plans for other Middle East posts will be activated only when necessary," Ople stressed.

¡¡¡¡He said that all diplomatic posts in the Middle East have been authorized additional spending money, aside from the existing embassy funds which may be used for emergency evacuation.

¡¡¡¡The trip from Baghdad to Amman, the capital of Jordan, is a 10-hour drive along a 1,000-kilometer, four-lane highway, according to Ople.

¡¡¡¡Once the evacuees had crossed the Iraqi-Jordanian border, they will be transferred to the custody of the Philippine Embassy in Amman.

¡¡¡¡In a related development, Ople, in a statement, said that the Philippine government had sought the assistance of the International Office of Migration (IOM) in the event that hostilities in the Middle East will go full blown and that the lives of 1.5 million Overseas Filipino Workers there will be endangered.

¡¡¡¡Ople said that the request was made in June this year during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, but, the IOM has been silent on the matter until now.

¡¡¡¡Arroyo on Wednesday ordered the creation of a crisis committee to look after the situation of Filipinos in the Middle East. Enditem

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