PART 2 – Noel Rebamba: Accidental Migrant Worker
Noel Rebamba was an accidental migrant worker. He was just accompanying his father who was then applying as a driver in Iraq in 2003. Upon seeing him, he was also encouraged by the agency to apply, too.
Though he was then driving their FX as a public utility vehicle, he applied as a laundry man in Iraq.
We know we will be delivered to Iraq, he said, despite the deployment ban in Iraq during the invasion.
Their batch leaving for Iraq in December 2003 almost filled the plane, he said. In Kuwait, they were about a thousand occupying a small-time condominium waiting deployment to Iraq. Food, electricity, water, and accommodations are free. They were even given advanced money which their leader himself almost pocketed.
In his contract, Rebamba said that although the name of their employer, the First Kuwaiti Trading Company, was identified, it was not indicated that they will be deployed in Iraq. He also learned that their main contractor was Kellogg, Brown & Root, the engineering and construction arm of the Halliburton Company which provides military support services. United States Vice President Dick Cheney was defense secretary when the first Brown & Root study was done, and he became chief executive of Halliburton when he retired.
His father was deployed first on Jan. 3, 2004 in Iraq. Rebamba was deployed in Camp Anaconda on Feb. 26, 2004.
Camp Anaconda
In Kuwait, Rebamba was promoted as a translator, increasing his salary from $250 to $450. But in Camp Anaconda, seniority complex demoted him, he said. Instead, he was asked to drive a truck inside the camp and deliver the materials needed in setting up facilities.
Ang trabaho ng pinoy dun, sila nagseserbisyo sa mga Kano dun (The jobof Filipinos there is to be all-around errand boys for the Americans there), he said, citing the works of repairing the air conditioner, cooking, cleaning toilets, and serving as utility men.
But with the abundance of food and other supplies inside the camp, Rebamba said one could not imagine they were in the middle of a war. They have ice cream, fruits, milk, and mineral water.
Pabango lang namin sa aircon ang mga orange at apple(We could afford to use oranges and apples as air fresheners), he boasted. Ang gatas nga dun pwede mong ipaligo (You could bathe with the milk there).
Pinoy Life Abroad
