It's not easy being an OFW. Not only are you the economic backbone of the nation and your family's main breadwinner but you also have to deal with so much abuse from your employers. Sometimes being an OFW can mean a matter of life or death. Likewise being a Fil-Am has it's own pitfalls.
An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Dubai jumped from the third floor of a building where she claimed she was being held against her will by her employment agency.
In a Sunday report on GMA 7 news program "24 Oras Weekend", the Filipina worker pleaded for help so she could return to the Philippines.
The Filipina worker arrived in Dubai last December, and was picked up from the airport and brought immediately to her agency.
She was promised that she would have an employer. But she claimed that weeks passed with no such patron, and she was being held captive by her agency without food.
Another Filipino brought her to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Dubai for assistance getting her back home to the Philippines. But this was not possible as her passport was still being held by the agency.
Employment agencies confiscating passports is the most common form of bondage for OFWs.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Tuesday said it is assisting a Filipina domestic helper in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia who was allegedly raped by a representative of her recruitment agency.
The victim was purportedly raped five times by the suspect. According to the DFA, the suspect was supposed to take the Filipina worker to a new employer, but he, instead, brought her to a hotel where the incident took place.
"The victim was able to contact [Philippine Overseas Labor Office], which came up with an alibi for the suspect to bring her back to the Consulate," the DFA said.
Raped by someone she was supposed to trust.
She and her employers were involved in a car crash in July 2018. She has since been paralyzed.
In an interview an hour before her flight back to the Philippines, Salgado (on a stretcher) told GMA News her sad story from the accident.
She also narrated how the accident took place while she and her employers were on their way to Ridadh from Albaha.
The impact of the car crash killed her employers (a couple). She suffered severe injury from neck to her legs, which paralyzed her.
Now she will be more of a burden than she can even imagine. Will her family resent having to take care of her 24/7?
A 39-year-old Filipina household service worker (HSW) was executed in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a scant media advisory.
Citing reports from Philippine Ambassador to Riyadh Adnan Alonto, the DFA said Saudi authorities carried out the sentence against the Filipina worker who was found guilty of murder.
While no other details were immediately provided about the case, the DFA said it was not able to save the life of the Filipina after the Saudi Supreme Judicial Council classified her case as “one in which blood money does not apply under Shariah law.”
Apparently this murder was not a crime the lady could simply pay her way out of except with her own blood. Tragic but not really. Execution is the price one pays for murder. But one must wonder what are the circumstances which drove her to do this. Plenty of OFWs in Saudi Arabia are abused to the point of death.
In a statement, the DFA said that the Philippine Embassy in Paris was coordinating with local authorities to know if any Filipinos were among those who died and were injured in the blaze that affected in a district in Paris where many Filipinos are known to be living in.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Thursday confirmed that a Filipino couple were among those killed in a fire that hit an apartment building in Paris on Tuesday.
Four other Filipinos residing in the building survived.
A lady
intentionally set that building on fire after a neighbour argued with her about the loud music she was playing. Sad.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Saturday condoled with the family of Anthony Del Barrio, a Filipino-American whose frozen body was found in Chicago last month.
“The Philippine Consulate General in Chicago was in contact with police authorities who said they are investigating the death as a possible homicide,” the DFA said in a statement.
The consulate learned that the victim was a third generation Filipino-American born and raised in the United Sates.
A third generation Fil-Am? That means he is 100% American and the DFA and Consulate shouldn't be involved at all.
Constantino, a 43-year-old Laguna native, has been a domestic worker in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia since December 2018. But she sought help several weeks later after her employer Maryam Awadh Ai Nofayej threatened to kill her after she was accused of stealing from Nofayej's house.
Only a few weeks after arriving she left because her employer threatened to kill her. Why are Pinoys sent to work in Saudi Arabia when these kinds of abuses continue to happen in that country?
A rescue operation was under way after a knife fight broke out aboard a Taiwanese fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean, with one worker killed and several thrown overboard, Taiwan's coast guard said Wednesday.
The fight broke out in the early hours of Wednesday aboard the "Wen Peng", a Taiwanese vessel manned with 21 Filipino and Indonesian workers.
One Filipino was killed and another critically wounded in the brawl.
Taiwan has one of the world's biggest tuna fishing fleets in the world but a poor record in its treatment of migrant workers.
According to a report by environmental group Greenpeace in 2016, Taiwan's fishing industry is "out of control" with rampant labor and human rights abuses toward foreign workers.
There are an estimated 160,000 migrant workers working on board Taiwanese fishing vessels, mostly from South East Asian countries of Philippines and Indonesia.
Filipinos will put up all kinds of abuses as long as they get paid well.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has arrested a Jordanian national and his Filipina live-in partner on allegations of large-scale illegal recruitment that has cost some 100 victims P4 million in fees.
The supposed accomplices allegedly promised victims employment as cleaners, waitresses, delivery personnel, janitors and drivers in Dubai.
Olor allegedly demanded P25,000 to P32,000 for placement and processing fees, but she and Tarrish "repeatedly failed" to deploy the workers, the NBI said.
Filipinos
will gladly scam their
fellow countrymen who are desperate
for an overseas job.
Jalson Laguta was driving an SUV carrying his passengers when it swerved off the road on northbound Highway 99 for an unknown reason, hit a tree and caught fire, according to the California Highway Patrol.
How awful. A whole family dead in a car wreck.
All the above stories are tragic so let's end on a positive not about a Fil-Am nurse.
Bagaconza was recognized for rendering humanitarian aid in developing areas, including the Philippines, Bolivia, Guatemala and Africa.
Bagaconza saves her annual paid time off and money for volunteer medical missions. Bagaconza volunteers with the organization Poor Household of God.
“Being born in a third world country, I was born and raised in the Philippines, you see poor people, hungry people,” Bagaconza said in a news release. “I volunteered after graduating from nursing school in a local clinic before I came to the United States and it all evolved from there.”
Bagaconza also collects clothing and other goods to donate to orphanages in the Philippines
“In 2011, I started my first mission trip to the Philippines. I did it for three years in the Philippines, then I extended,” she said. “If I’m going to help, I’m not only going to help people in the Philippines, I want to help other people, too. Every year, I’m thinking: Where do I go next?”
Before she left the Philippines she was already a do-gooder and with the money she makes in the USA she is able to do even more good to people around the world.
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