DEATH IN MID-EAST: Lifeless OFW in Kuwait freezer an Ilongga

Eva Demafelis of Sara, Iloilo holds a photo of daughter Joanna Daniela, a domestic worker found dead in a freezer in Kuwait. Eva says she has not spoken to Joanna Daniela over the past two years. PHOTO COURTESY OF REGI ADOSTO, ABS-CBN NEWS ILOILO

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BY ADRIAN STEWART CO and RUBY SILUBRICO
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February 11, 2018
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Eva Demafelis of Sara, Iloilo holds a photo of daughter Joanna Daniela, a domestic worker found dead in a freezer in Kuwait. Eva says she has not spoken to Joanna Daniela over the past two years. PHOTO COURTESY OF REGI ADOSTO, ABS-CBN NEWS ILOILO

ILOILO – The government is preparing to bring home the remains of the overseas Filipino worker (OFW) found dead inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait.

Joanna Daniela Demafelis is from Barangay Ferraris, Sara town in Iloilo province. She was identified through her fingerprints, according to Department of Labor and Employment secretary Silvestre Bello III.

But the cause of her death remains unknown, Bello said.

“Inihahanda na (ang pagbalik sa Pilipinas) pero kailangan pa i-DNA para malaman ang cause of death,” the secretary said in a radio interview.

Authorities are hunting a couple – a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife – suspected to be responsible for Demafelis’ death, Bello said.

“The minister of the interior of Kuwait has alerted the Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization),” he said. “They (couple) have an address in Lebanon. We expect that they will be arrested.”

The couple reportedly fled Kuwait in 2016 after an arrest warrant was issued for the Lebanese man in relation to cases on fake checks, he added.

Demafelis, a 29-year-old domestic worker, was found lifeless on Wednesday in a sitting position with the arms crossed. Her body was believed to have been in the freezer for more than a year.

“It was possible that she was already dead when her body was stuffed into the freezer, the Labor secretary said.

Kuwaiti authorities are working with the Interpol for the arrest of the suspects, who are also reportedly Demafelis’ employers.

“They expect to arrest the couple in the next few days dahil alam nila ang address sa Lebanon ng mag-asawa,” Bello said.

Demafelis’ family is demanding justice.

In a radio interview, her mother Eva said she has not spoken to her daughter for two years already. Demafelis went to Kuwait in 2014.

In her first three months abroad Demafelis would call her family and tell them she was doing fine – until their communication gradually stopped.

“We want justice for the death of our child, who is the only one financially supporting us,” Eva said in Hiligaynon.

She described Demafelis as “kind and generous.” Her parents both work in rice farms.

In 2016 Demafelis expressed intent to stay in Kuwait for one more year, according to her sister Juliet.

“She (Demafelis) still managed to call me to say she was extending her stay because she was doing OK,” the sister said in Hiligaynon. That was the last her family and relatives heard of her.

Worried about her sister’s condition, Juliet sought help from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in locating her sister in February last year.

But it was only this Friday that the OWWA reached out to the family – to tell them Demafelis has died, according to Chief Inspector Gilbert Baldevarona, Sara municipal police chief.

“Personnel from OWWA went to our station and asked where the Demafelis family lives,” Baldevarona said. “One of my officers knows where the OFWs’ house is and went with them.”

In Davao City, President Rodrigo Duterte expressed disgust over the death of Demafelis and the “inhumane treatment of Filipino workers in Kuwait.”

On Friday night at the Matina Enclaves, Duterte showed photos of Demafelis’ body bearing torture marks. The President said there were indications she was strangled to death.

Duterte said the body was found while authorities were serving an eviction order in an unoccupied apartment. In showing the photos, he said he wanted to give a “face to the cruelty” some OFWs are facing.

Demafelis went to Manila after graduating from Sara National High School and worked there for several years until 2014, when she went home and asked permission from her parents to work in Kuwait.

Demafelis was shouldering the tuition of her younger sister, who is taking up a bachelor’s degree in criminology, but the latter stopped going to school when the OFW stopped sending money.

The family plans to seek an autopsy on Demafelis’ remains. (With a report from Philippine News Agency/PN)
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