PHL contacts Gaddafi's missing Pinoy househelpers

The Philippine government has made contact with the four Filipino househelpers working for ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who went missing after rebels took over his known bailiwicks. A statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Undersecretary Rafael Seguis was able to talk by phone with one of the four househelpers although their location was not known. "The OFW (overseas Filipino worker) said they are safe and secure where they are now, but signified their desire to leave their employ and come back home as soon as possible," the statement said. Seguis returned to Manila on Sunday after a two-week repatriation mission in Libya. A lone Filipino worker who left Tripoli on September 1 to board a chartered boat to Benghazi and fly to Manila from Cairo was with him. The DFA said the embassy in Tripoli will exert all efforts to assist the four Filipino househelpers and the other Filipinos in Libya who seek repatriation. Since March more or less 9,000 Filipinos have returned from Libya, most of them highly paid engineers working in oil companies there. There are at least 1,600 Filipinos still in Libya, many of them working as nurses and medical staff. DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said the embassy will seek the release of the Filipino househelps of Ghadafi using diplomatic channels "at an opportune time given the security situation the four OFWs are in." - KBK, GMA News