Post by warlock^_^ on May 29, 2006 16:13:11 GMT 8
We have a PinoyMTBiker brother in Timor Leste right? Obijuan...hope he's okey
65 Filipinos bring home tales of terror from East Timor
May 29, 2006
Updated 03:09am (Mla time)
Nikko Dizon
Inquirer
GUNFIRE. BUILDINGS IN FLAMES.
Gangs roaming around with machetes and bows and arrows. And, finally, uncertainty.
These were what drove 65 Filipinos out of East Timor and prompted them to fly back home to the Philippines yesterday, some of them in tears.
“It was so scary. They themselves were killing each other. Some of them even had machetes and bows and arrows,” Virgilio Maniago, 50, said in Filipino as he recounted to the Inquirer his nightmare in the world’s youngest nation.
Maniago, who worked as a welder in East Timor for three years, was in the first batch of Filipino evacuees to flee the Timorese capital of Dili.
The evacuees included two young girls and an infant.
First to disembark from a Philippine Air Force C-130 at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City was Rosalie Alvarado, who carried her month-old daughter, Rowena, in her arms.
Tears flow
Alvarado’s tears flowed as she was met by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who welcomed the evacuees home.
Ms Arroyo paid particular attention to the mother and child, urging Alvarado to take her lunch so that she could breast-feed Rowena.
In Dili itself, hundreds of UN employees were evacuated as rival gangs roamed the streets of the capital, torching homes and battling with machetes in defiance of foreign peacekeepers sent to quell the violence that has plunged the fledgling country into chaos.
Tens of thousands of residents also fled Dili or sought refuge in churches, embassies and at the airport, leaving much of the city deserted.
Smoke billowed from several areas where attacks were taking place. Australian troops rumbled toward the sound of gunfire in tanks and armored personnel carriers, but seemed to only briefly scatter combatants, according to The Associated Press.
Alvarado, a mother of six, worked part time in Dili, doing different jobs for four years. Her child’s father, also a Filipino, stayed behind.
“I won’t be going back there,” said Alvarado, a native of Porac town in Pampanga province.
Many of the returnees described the situation in Dili as nothing short of terrifying. They stayed inside their homes, not daring to go out lest they got caught in the crossfire.
Burning houses
“In our street, I saw people chasing each other with machetes: Three houses were burned there and four people perished in one,” Adelyn Pascual, who said she worked at Dili’s Ministry for Planning and Finance, told AP Television News.
At night, Pascual said she saw smoke and burning buildings, then she would see bodies sprawled near gutted buildings in the morning. She said while foreigners were not targeted, they could still be hurt in the clashes.
“You can’t really avoid bullets because bullets couldn’t distinguish from foreigners,” she said.
“We couldn’t do anything but to leave before we got hurt in the chaos. Something bad could happen to us,” said Manuel Cruz, an engineer in Dili.
There are about 200 Filipinos working in East Timor as engineers, nongovernment organization volunteers and Christian missionaries.
A Filipino couple said that they had to lie on the floor inside their Dili apartment to avoid being hit by stray bullets.
The husband, who requested anonymity, said his Korean coworker was hit in the neck by a wayward bullet while peeking through his apartment window.
“That’s how dangerous the situation there is,” he said. “That’s why when we were informed that the Philippine government would be sending a C-130 to have us evacuated, we immediately took it.”
Text messages helped
He said the Filipinos were immediately informed by the Philippine Embassy of the evacuation plan through an efficient text messaging network.
“They work fast there,” he said of the embassy staff led by Ambassador Farita Aguilucho-Ong.
His wife had been there only a week for a visit when the violence erupted. He had been working in Dili for the last five years as a consultant in the country’s Department of Education.
Jun Clomera, a 38-year-old engineer, said that even if the foreigners were not the direct targets in the strife, he chose not to step outside his house.
“Our movement there was limited because you really don’t know what will happen next. The situation was very uncertain because there would be violence one day, things would cool down the next, then you’d hear rumors of attacks again,” Clomera said.
Clomera had been working in Dili for a Japanese company for a year and a half.
Some 110 other Filipinos, including those working with the United Nations, had chosen to stay behind, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Among them was Fernando Flores, a Baptist pastor doing missionary work in Samanatuto, outside Dili.
“He decided to stay behind because he could not leave the many people we had taught,” his wife, Jeannie, said.
Jeannie, 34, said she and her husband decided that she should go home with their daughters, aged nine and eight.
“We’ve seen buildings being burned down. It’s just not safe for our girls,” Jeannie said.
The couple had been doing missionary work in East Timor for the last six years. They were sent there by their church, the Lapasan Baptist Church, based in Cagayan de Oro City.
A C-130 remains on standby in case a second evacuation is needed, Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr. said.
“We are watching the situation very, very closely,” Conejos said. Conejos also said lespu Chief Inspector Edgar Layon, who was shot in the stomach during a clash among East Timores, remained in stable condition in a private hospital in Darwin, Australia.
65 Filipinos bring home tales of terror from East Timor
May 29, 2006
Updated 03:09am (Mla time)
Nikko Dizon
Inquirer
GUNFIRE. BUILDINGS IN FLAMES.
Gangs roaming around with machetes and bows and arrows. And, finally, uncertainty.
These were what drove 65 Filipinos out of East Timor and prompted them to fly back home to the Philippines yesterday, some of them in tears.
“It was so scary. They themselves were killing each other. Some of them even had machetes and bows and arrows,” Virgilio Maniago, 50, said in Filipino as he recounted to the Inquirer his nightmare in the world’s youngest nation.
Maniago, who worked as a welder in East Timor for three years, was in the first batch of Filipino evacuees to flee the Timorese capital of Dili.
The evacuees included two young girls and an infant.
First to disembark from a Philippine Air Force C-130 at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City was Rosalie Alvarado, who carried her month-old daughter, Rowena, in her arms.
Tears flow
Alvarado’s tears flowed as she was met by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who welcomed the evacuees home.
Ms Arroyo paid particular attention to the mother and child, urging Alvarado to take her lunch so that she could breast-feed Rowena.
In Dili itself, hundreds of UN employees were evacuated as rival gangs roamed the streets of the capital, torching homes and battling with machetes in defiance of foreign peacekeepers sent to quell the violence that has plunged the fledgling country into chaos.
Tens of thousands of residents also fled Dili or sought refuge in churches, embassies and at the airport, leaving much of the city deserted.
Smoke billowed from several areas where attacks were taking place. Australian troops rumbled toward the sound of gunfire in tanks and armored personnel carriers, but seemed to only briefly scatter combatants, according to The Associated Press.
Alvarado, a mother of six, worked part time in Dili, doing different jobs for four years. Her child’s father, also a Filipino, stayed behind.
“I won’t be going back there,” said Alvarado, a native of Porac town in Pampanga province.
Many of the returnees described the situation in Dili as nothing short of terrifying. They stayed inside their homes, not daring to go out lest they got caught in the crossfire.
Burning houses
“In our street, I saw people chasing each other with machetes: Three houses were burned there and four people perished in one,” Adelyn Pascual, who said she worked at Dili’s Ministry for Planning and Finance, told AP Television News.
At night, Pascual said she saw smoke and burning buildings, then she would see bodies sprawled near gutted buildings in the morning. She said while foreigners were not targeted, they could still be hurt in the clashes.
“You can’t really avoid bullets because bullets couldn’t distinguish from foreigners,” she said.
“We couldn’t do anything but to leave before we got hurt in the chaos. Something bad could happen to us,” said Manuel Cruz, an engineer in Dili.
There are about 200 Filipinos working in East Timor as engineers, nongovernment organization volunteers and Christian missionaries.
A Filipino couple said that they had to lie on the floor inside their Dili apartment to avoid being hit by stray bullets.
The husband, who requested anonymity, said his Korean coworker was hit in the neck by a wayward bullet while peeking through his apartment window.
“That’s how dangerous the situation there is,” he said. “That’s why when we were informed that the Philippine government would be sending a C-130 to have us evacuated, we immediately took it.”
Text messages helped
He said the Filipinos were immediately informed by the Philippine Embassy of the evacuation plan through an efficient text messaging network.
“They work fast there,” he said of the embassy staff led by Ambassador Farita Aguilucho-Ong.
His wife had been there only a week for a visit when the violence erupted. He had been working in Dili for the last five years as a consultant in the country’s Department of Education.
Jun Clomera, a 38-year-old engineer, said that even if the foreigners were not the direct targets in the strife, he chose not to step outside his house.
“Our movement there was limited because you really don’t know what will happen next. The situation was very uncertain because there would be violence one day, things would cool down the next, then you’d hear rumors of attacks again,” Clomera said.
Clomera had been working in Dili for a Japanese company for a year and a half.
Some 110 other Filipinos, including those working with the United Nations, had chosen to stay behind, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Among them was Fernando Flores, a Baptist pastor doing missionary work in Samanatuto, outside Dili.
“He decided to stay behind because he could not leave the many people we had taught,” his wife, Jeannie, said.
Jeannie, 34, said she and her husband decided that she should go home with their daughters, aged nine and eight.
“We’ve seen buildings being burned down. It’s just not safe for our girls,” Jeannie said.
The couple had been doing missionary work in East Timor for the last six years. They were sent there by their church, the Lapasan Baptist Church, based in Cagayan de Oro City.
A C-130 remains on standby in case a second evacuation is needed, Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr. said.
“We are watching the situation very, very closely,” Conejos said. Conejos also said lespu Chief Inspector Edgar Layon, who was shot in the stomach during a clash among East Timores, remained in stable condition in a private hospital in Darwin, Australia.