Philippine team ends tour with hard-hitting findings

RIYADH: After a five-day visit, the Philippine House of Representatives’ Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs (COWA) fact-finding mission brought home a clear picture of the hardships that Filipino migrant workers faced in Saudi Arabia.

The mission took COWA Chair Rep. Walden Bello and committee members Reps. Cresente Paez, Maria Carmen Zamora-Apsay and Emmeline Aglipay to Philippine government-operated shelters for distressed migrant workers in Riyadh, Jeddah and Alkhobar. The team also held talks with consulate and embassy officials and members of worker advocacy groups.

“The testimonies of the women in the shelters revealed in many cases a situation of virtual slavery,” said Bello. “A working day of 18 to 22 hours, constant threat of sexual abuse from employers the women called ‘maniacs,’ and beatings, sometimes with the use of hot irons, by the wives of employers.”

Most of the women in the shelters have been victims of violence, including sexual abuse.

“The trip also revealed collusion between unscrupulous recruitment agencies in Manila and their counterparts in Saudi Arabia that result in household workers being paid significantly less than they agreed to before leaving the Philippines,” Bello added.

In a process called contract substitution, workers are told back home they will be paid the Philippine-government mandated minimum wage of SR1,500 a month.

A contract is signed in order to gain exit clearance, but on arrival in the Kingdom the original contract agreed upon in the Philippines is replaced with a new contract stating lower wages.

According to Bello, the view has been widely shared that Filipino women are discouraged from working in Saudi Arabia owing to the abuses many face there.

Praising the work of the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO), Bello said more could be done.  “These offices are severely understaffed, yet their rescue teams have liberated scores of Filipino women from oppressive employers who have often locked them up,” he said. “The rescue missions are sometimes dangerous; in one instance, a team had to rescue a woman from a remote tribal area where they were met  by tribesmen bearing rifles.”

Such operations cannot take place without the assistance of Saudi authorities, and Bello said often there is little information to act upon.

“The missions are also carried out with minimum knowledge of the location of the victims who cannot give clear directions because they are not familiar with the neighborhoods in which they are located,” he pointed out.

“In some cases, high-tech electronic assistance to pinpoint the location of the victims by tracing their cell phone signals is provided by Filipinos working in Saudi telecommunications companies.”

Other equally important concerns migrant groups raised included issues of repatriation of workers, the Pag-IBIG housing fund, the mandatory insurance program and the situation of Filipinos in jails and detention centers.

While two members of the mission were able to meet with the head of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee to intercede on behalf of Dondon Celestino Lanuza, a Filipino who is currently on death row at a Dammam penitentiary, the group was not given permission to meet with Lanuza or other detained Filipinos facing execution.

From that meeting, Bello reported a positive development: The father of Lanuza’s victim, the members of the mission were informed, is now more open to talking about a settlement. Lanuza claims that he killed the victim in self defense.

According to Shariah law, Lanuza can escape the death penalty and be released if he is forgiven by the closest kin of the victim in return for blood money.

“We gained lots of information and important insights during this visit,” said Bello. “This is indeed the dark place for so many of our kababayans (compatriots) there.” –ABDUL HANNAN TAGO | ARAB NEWS