Forgotten Scandal: OFWs Sexually Abused by PHL Embassy Officials in Kuwait

This post was originally going to be a rehash of the past pointing out all the times that OFWs have been abused in Kuwait, which is rather often, but I stumbled onto something bigger and apparently forgotten: the sexual abuse and trafficking of OFWs by Philippine embassy officials.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/48294-trafficking-charges-ph-embassy-officials-kuwait

A Philippine embassy official has been implicated in the trafficking of migrant workers in Kuwait. 

In an initial report by the Kuwait Anti-Trafficking Task Force released Friday, January 17, trafficking and other related charges were recommended against Philippine consul Ibrahim Daligdig Tanandato, two embassy-hired contractuals, two embassy-hired lawyers, and 3 recruiters. 

Tanandato is the Assistant to (the) National Unit Head in the Philippine consular office in Kuwait. 

The complainants were allegedly hired by an embassy official to work as domestic helpers, even without any proper documentation as migrant workers. They were given a monthly salary of P8,000. 

The same official was also accused of deceiving one of the helpers into believing that her back pay had not yet been released by her previous employer.  

Sexual abuse, unpaid back pay, and a 20-hour work per day with no or limited food were just some of the conditions that complainants endured in the hands of their employers, based on sworn statements. 

Kuwaiti OFWs alleged that an official of the Philippine embassy in Kuwait hired them to work as domestic workers without proper documentation. They also allege they were subject to long days, little or no food, and sexual abuse by their employers. The DOJ recommended charges be brought against Philippine consul Ibrahim Daligdig Tanandato and many others.

In a nutshell, the complainants alleged in their Sworn Affidavits that a government official hired them to work as  domestic helpers with a salary of only fifty (50) Kuwaiti Dinar (KD) a month, and without any proper documentation from POLO-OWWA; that with abuse of power and position, the same government official took advantage of one of the victims by deceiving her that her  backwages have not been paid yet by her previous employer; that the Embassy-hired lawyers, together with the Embassy-hired contractuals and government  officials, demanded money from the complainants as Attorney's fees; and that a government official and an Embassy-hired lawyer advised and insisted that she settles her case in exchange of money. Two of the complainants also alleged that they were recruited as handlers of K-9 Bomb Sniffing Dog with a monthly salary of Php30,000 to Php35,000; that one of the complainants paid Php10,000 to one of the respondents as training fee, and Php23,000, purportedly, for the immigration officer; however, upon arrival in Kuwait, they were made to sign a document with a salary of only 110 KD per month. 

Further, the Task Force recommended that the DFA and the POEA look into the abuses allegedly committed by Kuwaiti or other foreign  employers/nationals, and that after conducting the necessary investigation, to study the possibility of permanently blacklisting them from employing OFWs, or representing them in  legal cases. 

It appears that a number of the complainants have been maltreated by their employers, or by the wives of their employers; that the Embassy-hired lawyers failed to assist the complainants in the prosecution of their cases against the offenders; that some employers did not pay the complainants' backwages; that a complainant was made to work for twenty (20) hours with limited or no food at all; that employers locked two of the  complainants in the house to prevent them from escaping; that a  complainant was sexually abused by her employer and his son; and that one employer touched and pinched the butt of one of the complainants.

https://www.doj.gov.ph/news_article.html?newsid=252

Amazingly there is no information on what happened next to Ibrahim Daligdig Tanandato or anyone else whom the DOJ recommended charges be filed against. They all practically disappear from the news and from the internet. No word on if they were actually charged and convicted or what. Nothing.  

Aside from Kuwaiti embassy officials trafficking OFWs one official was involved in a sex-for-flight scheme. The NBI recommend charges be filed.

https://www.doj.gov.ph/news_article.html?newsid=225

Said Final Report recommends that charges for Attempted Rape and three (3) counts of Abuses Against Chastity be filed against a male Assistant Labor Attaché (hereafter referred to as "the ALA") assigned to a Philippine Embassy in the Middle East, for acts allegedly committed against three (3) distressed, female Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who were seeking assistance from the Philippine Embassy. Also recommended to be charged with Attempted Rape and Abuses Against Chastity, is a local hire, who served as the driver of a Labor Attaché (hereinafter referred to as "the LA") assigned to the same Philippine Embassy. 

One witness, a male distressed/runaway OFW and a volunteer worker at the POLO Office, stated in his Sworn Statement that he witnessed the attempt of the ALA to rape complainant AAA on 18 May 2013, as he was inside the pantry, where the divider was only made of glass and through which he could clearly see the room or office where the assault was taking place. He saw the ALA forcibly kissing AAA, while the latter tried to get away. The ALA, however, held her hands and, thereafter, pulled her into a rest room. Two (2) to three (3) minutes thereafter, the witness saw AAA run out of the room.  

Another complainant ("CCC"), on whose account the third count of Abuses Against Chastity against the ALA is based, sought help from POLO-OWWA after escaping from her abusive employer, who, at some point, had locked her in a room for two days and two nights without any food and water, causing her to pass out and be hospitalized. She was interviewed at the POLO Office, the last of which was conducted by the ALA, who also brought her to Bahay Kalinga. She, too, in her Sworn Statement, alleged that she was verbally abused and disrespected by the ALA, including one occasion when, while they were inside a car, the ALA asked her if she was ever touched by her employer end, if not, whether he (the ALA) could touch her instead. 

She also recounted receiving phone calls from a certain "Muhammad", who offered her a part-time job involving "going to heaven" or just a one-night stand, in exchange for her ticket to the Philippines. She received such calls on more than one occasion, and when she rejected his offer, he requested a photo of her in her underwear instead. She reasons to believe, however, that "Muhammad" is actually the ALA, based on, among others, her familiarity with his voice, the fact that he was the only one who knew her contact number, and the person's knowledge about personal details about herself that only the ALA knew about. When she finally arrived back in the Philippines late in May 2013, she found out that she already had a ticket as far back as February 2013, which the ALA never disclosed to her.

The report is long and lewd and a must read. Whatever happened to this man though? No idea. But a few months after this DOJ report three men involved in the sex-for-flight scheme were rehired at the Kuwait embassy.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/pinoyabroad/359202/embassy-labor-officer-accused-of-sex-for-flight-in-kuwait-rehired/story/

The three men have been identified by the government's Kuwait Anti-Trafficking Task Force as Case Officers Joselito Atienza, Omar Khalil, and Saleh "Casley" Watamama. All of them are staff members under the Philippine Overseas Labor Office/Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (POLO/OWWA) of the Department of Overseas Labor and Employment (DOLE).  

The “sex-for-flight” scheme first erupted in Philippine media as part of revelations by Rep. Walden Bello in June of 2013 that involved Philippine officials in other embassies in the Middle East.   

Assistant Secretary Lila Ramos Shahani of the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cabinet Cluster, under the Office of the President, told GMA News Online that she had earlier informed her superiors there is ample evidence to suggest such activities had been taking place since the mid-1990s.   

Several other embassy-based personnel who have been accused were recalled to the home office to face charges, but the three men remained in Kuwait. They have even retained the same positions despite a January 17, 2014 memorandum from Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz ordering the non-renewal of all POLO-OWWA local hires in Kuwait.  

In March, or two months after the order from Baldoz, labor attaché Cesar Chavez issued a memo retaining the three men. He told GMA News Online in a phone interview from Kuwait that doing so would make it easier to investigate them.  

“It was the collective decision of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the DOLE to hold on to those implicated in the sex-for-flight controversy, because we are expecting the Department of Justice to conduct a preliminary investigation on the matter,” Chavez explained in a memo justifying the contract renewal.

These three men were accused of improper and criminal activities but were rehired because it would "make it easier to investigate them." But was there an investigation? What happened to this men? Were they charged and sentenced? Again no idea. Their names disappear and the trail goes cold. 

As the above article says it was in June 2013 that sexual scandals inside the Philippines' embassies were exposed when Rep. Bello made several stunning accusations.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/31556-embassy-officials-prostitution-overseas-filipino-workers

Philippine embassy staff in various posts in the Middle East are sexually abusing and prostituting distressed overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). 

This was disclosed by Akbayan Rep Walden Bello, chairman of the House committee on overseas workers' affairs, on Tuesday, June 18.  

Branding them as "predators," Bello identified the officials as: 

• Mario Antonio, the assistant labor attaché in Jordan

• Blas Marquez, a local hire or a contractual employee of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Kuwait

• A certain "Kim," who is a member of the Augmentation Team of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) at the embassy in Damascus, Syria

"Sexual abuse on our womenfolk perpetrated by their hosts in a foreign country is an awful crime. But there is something more awful, and that is their exploitation by their own compatriots in that strange land," Bello said in a press conference.  

Bello gathered the information through interviews with department and embassy insiders, affidavits of witnesses, and confidential reports. 

"I am asking [Foreign Affairs] Secretary Albert Del Rosario and [Labor] Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, two individuals that I respect greatly, to move immediately to recall the officials I have identified, dismiss them from government service, and criminally prosecute them," Bello said. 

Antonio and Marquez are accused of running "prostitution rings" in Jordan and Kuwait, respectively. Antonio supposedly sold at least one female OFW for as high US$1,000 (about P40,000) for sex, according to Bello.  

"Kim," on the other hand, was supposedly caught in January "in an intimate act with a female OFW at the embassy shelter for distressed OFWs.  

Bello said these "predators" should be "stripped of their positions," recalled from their posts, and prosecuted in the Philippines.  

Bello's exposé is based on his interviews with "unimpeachable sources" at the DFA and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). These sources "asked us to expose the criminals in their ranks because their acts are giving their agencies a bad name," Bello added.

These are explosive accusations and apparently the only thing that happened is Mario Antonio and Blas Marquez were relieved from their positions. Their trail goes cold rather quickly. Were they charged? Convicted? What about all the other people allegedly involved in the abuse of OFWs in the Jordanian and Kuwaiti embassies?

And what about the evidence Lila Ramos Shahani claims to have that this kind of activity has been happening since the mid-1990's? What is the nature of that evidence? Who does it involve? Has anyone from the NBI or DOJ investigated this evidence? Are these activities still continuing at the Philippines' embassies? Are the stories above just the tip of the iceberg of decades of sexual abuse of OFWs at the hands of Philippine embassy officials?

Despite the abuses OFWs in Kuwait and the rest of the Middle East face at the hands of their employers the government still allows them to be sent to their doom. Why is that? Just a few days ago the government issued another ban on OFWs to Kuwait. The previous ban was nearly two years ago when the same situation, the death of a maid, occurred. 

In 2011 the government threatened to place a ban on OFWs going to Kuwait because they could not guarantee their protection which is the same scenario happening now.

https://www.arabianbusiness.com/uae-kuwait-qatar-face-ban-on-filipino-maids--418458.html

Ultimately Kuwait did not make the cut of 41 countries the government banned OFWs from working in. That does not mean Kuwait was or is safe for OFWs. It's not. History makes that abundantly clear. 

Stabbed in the vagina 

An OFW who has sought help from Embassy officials told of her experience of abuse and exploitation. 

"Kris," not her real name, said she decided to escape from her Kuwaiti female employer after the employer stabbed her vagina, inserted pepper inside her private parts and sprayed it with a liquid bleaching product. 

She sought the help of then head of the DFA Assistance to Nationals Section Ibrahim Tanandato who assured her a case will be filed. 

Kris said her case did not move even after one year of her stay at the POLO-OWWA shelter. 

Shortly after, she was surprised when she was informed she lost her case already. 

Kris told ABS-CBN that it was a staff member of the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait who helped her after learning about her case from another source. It was the American who recommended a human rights lawyer to follow up her case in court. It was only then that the case eventually moved.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/01/20/14/ph-officials-kuwait-linked-human-trafficking

"Kris" was disgracefully and shamefully abused by her employer and the Philippine embassy sat on their butts!  It took the help of a U.S. Embassy staff member to get her case moving. How's that for meddling in the Philippines' sovereign affairs!

The current ban on OFWs to Kuwait won't last forever but it seems OFWs will continue to be abused by their employers, their employer's pet lions, and those who are tasked with protecting them.