In Nation Where Many Work Overseas, Kidnap Victim Seen as 'Average Filipino'

MANILA -- Most mornings, Dante Almarez said he walks with his 5 -year-old niece, Maria, from their makeshift apartment built from shipping containers to wait for the school bus.

But one day last week, Almarez was long gone when the bus pulled up. He was in a line at the Foreign Ministry, helping one of his sisters obtain documents so that she could work in Israel.

Soon, Almarez, jobless and single at 23, will be the guardian of Maria, his niece, whose mother works as a gas-station cashier in Los Angeles, and his nephew, Hanz Christian, 4, whose mother is planning to leave.

The collective sacrifices of people such as Almarez and his family are typical throughout the Philippines, a country with 7 million people working abroad to improve their financial conditions. Last year, Filipinos working overseas sent home about $7.6 billion, 10 percent of the county's gross domestic product.

When one of them, Angelo de la Cruz, a truck driver kidnapped last month in Iraq, was imperiled, Filipinos reacted strongly and personally.

"It was so frightening because we didn't know something like this could happen," said Almarez, who said he has six close relatives employed abroad. "It made me think this could also happen to my family."

That reaction helps to explain the decision by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to meet the demands of the kidnappers and withdraw 51 Philippine troops who had been serving in Iraq.

Analysts said she had no other political option, describing de la Cruz as an Everyman whose plight strikes at the heart of Filipino life.

"He symbolizes all the overseas workers and our inability to develop the economy well enough to provide for work and sustenance and well-being," said Jose V. Abueva, a political scientist and president of Kalayaan College. "There's a sense of guilt in our country that we cannot provide the work they need."

But the Bush administration was not happy about Arroyo's decision. The U.S. ambassador returned to Washington after the release of de la Cruz to reexamine the relationship with its longtime ally and former colony, U.S. officials said. There also was a strong rebuke from the Australian government, which has about 900 troops serving in the U.S.-led force in Iraq, warning that caving in to terrorist demands will encourage more attacks.

Almarez, solidly built with a broad face and thick black hair, sat on a plastic bench outside the Foreign Ministry. He recounted the trying story of his family as he waited with scores of other Filipinos seeking exit documents. He was there because his sister couldn't go; she was working.

His father's fruit and poultry farm had done poorly. Almarez and his older brother Dario, 27, both had trained to work as customs brokers but failed to find employment. Their father went into debt partly because he paid to send Almarez's two sisters to nursing school, but neither found a job.

The oldest sister, Lerma, 32, moved to Los Angeles to join her Filipino husband, who works as a dental assistant. They left Maria behind so that she would be raised in her native culture.

"Her mother calls all the time from the United States and cries," Almarez said.