¡¡¡¡MANILA, Jan. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Filipinos in Kuwait will be providedwith protective masks in the event war breaks out in Iraq, special envoy Roy A. Cimatu said.

¡¡¡¡Cimatu, head of the Philippines' Middle East Preparedness Team, left Monday for Kuwait, to oversee the safety of the 1.4 million overseas Filipino workers in the troubled Middle East region.

¡¡¡¡Cimatu said the Kuwaiti government has assured the Philippines of providing the 60,000 Filipinos in the country of gas masks if hostilities erupt between its neighbor country of Iraq and the United States, the Philippine News Agency reported on Tuesday.

¡¡¡¡The gas mask is for protection in times of biological and chemical warfare.

¡¡¡¡Cimatu said Philippine contingency plan for the evacuation of Filipino workers in the Middle East, particularly Kuwait, is already in place.

¡¡¡¡In the event of war, the Filipinos in Kuwait will be relocated to safer places. But nonetheless they will each be issued with gasmasks for their protection, he said.

¡¡¡¡He added that there is not much problem for the evacuation of Filipinos in Iraq because there are only 109 of them and most if not all are working with the UN. Enditem

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