Nearly 3,000 OFWs detained on criminal charges

MANILA, Philippines – There are around 3,000 Filipinos detained overseas on criminal charges, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported yesterday.

DFA said 70 percent of these have committed immigration-related offenses, while the rest are in custody for theft, drug trafficking and other common crimes.

Sixty-two Filipinos are detained in nine countries in the Middle East for drug related offenses, while 43 others, most of them women, are detained in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

One of them, a certain Jason Mallorca Pineda, who was jailed in Dammam, Saudi Arabia in 2008 for allegedly receiving 21.2 grams of methamphetamine and selling it to fellow Filipinos, is awaiting the final decision of the Grand Court of Dammam.

Saudi authorities said he confessed to the crime. He remains in detention since Saudi law does not grant bail for drug-related offenses and has zero tolerance for such offenses. –Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star)