Remains of 4 Pinoy oil workers abducted, later executed by IS in Libya 6 yrs ago finally located

WITH the help of Libyan authorities, the remains of four Filipino oil workers who were forcibly taken along with two coworkers from Austria and the Czech Republic by Islamic State (IS) extremists who attacked the Ghani Oil Field in southern Libya on March 6, 2015, have finally been located in a cemetery in the eastern coastal city of Derna on Monday.

Philippine Embassy in Tripoli Chargé d’affaires and Head of Mission Elmer G. Cato said nothing much had been heard from the kidnapped foreign oil workers until two years later when a video showing their execution was found in a laptop seized from slain IS fighters in Derna. The six, who were employed by the Austrian contractor Value Added Oil Services (VAOS), had since been presumed dead although their bodies were never recovered.

Sometime in 2018, Chargé d’affaires Cato said the Embassy was informed that the remains of the four missing Filipinos could be among those that have been recovered by the Libyan Red Crescent Society in various parts of Derna and later buried there.

However, due to the unstable security situation, the embassy was not able to send a team to Derna to search for the four Filipinos. It was only in October that Embassy officials were able to travel to Benghazi and request the assistance of authorities in finding the four.

On March 1, Libyan military authorities led embassy officials to the Dahr Ahmar Islamic Cemetery 10 kilometers from Derna, where they said Donato Santiago, Gregorio Titan, Roldan Blaza, and Wilson Eligue were buried after their bodies were recovered six years ago.

Cato said the Office of Migrant Workers Affairs has conveyed the lat

est development to the families in the Philippines of the four Filipinos and will make arrangements for forensics experts to assist in identifying the remains and bringing them home.

“After six long years, the families of our four kababayans will finally find closure,” Cato said. “We are indebted to our Libyan friends for making this possible.”

PHILIPPINE EMBASSY PHOTO BY ANABELLE BELTING AUTHORITIES in the eastern Libyan city of Derna point, the site where they buried four Filipinos and their Austrian and Czech coworkers who were kidnapped and later executed by Islamic State militants six years ago. The remains of the six oil workers were buried in a local cemetery that was visited on Monday by Chargé d’affaires and Head of Mission Elmer G. Cato (fourth from left) of the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli.