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BY CAROLYN JANE ABELLO
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Friday, February 23, 2018
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Duterte vows justice for slain Ilongga OFW
ILOILO City – The ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Kuwait stays and may even expand to other countries, said President Rodrigo Duterte in Sara, Iloilo at the wake of the Ilongga domestic worker killed in the oil-rich Gulf state.
“We are doing an audit now (to) find out the places where our countrymen suffer brutal treatment and human degradation,” said the President yesterday afternoon in Sitio Cordero, Barangay Ferraris, Sara.
He assured the family of slain Joanna Daniela Demafelis that the government would give them justice but “we just have to wait and pray that they will be apprehended or arrested.”
Duterte was referring to the employers of Demafelis who had fled Kuwait – a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife.
“Kung mangyari ‘yan, mahuli at nagdemanda, doon ako papasok,” he told Demafelis’ parents Eva and Crisanto.
Criminal charges would be filed, said Duterte but he urged the family to be patient and wait for the result of the investigation.
Demafelis was beaten to death then stuffed in a freezer.
“This is a serious crime,” said Duterte.
After the discovery of Demafelis’ body on Feb. 9, the President banned the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait, a move that did not sit well with Kuwaiti authorities.
“Problema nila ‘yan. Basta ako, the ban stays. No deployment of Filipinos to Kuwait,” declared the President yesterday.
Among the OFW destination countries that would be subjected to labor audit are Qatar and Saudi Arabia, according to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
“You have to have a list of individual (abuse) cases (both) reported and unreported,” said Duterte.
Over two million Filipinos are working in Kuwait and other Middle East countries, including Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, but many cases of abuse have also been reported elsewhere. They often work as domestic helpers, construction workers, engineers, and nurses.
Duterte, however, would not speculate on the countries to which the labor ban could be expanded.
OWWA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said Kuwaiti authorities and Interpol have launched an international manhunt for Demafelis’ employers.
“Our embassy in Kuwait is coordinating with the Kuwaiti authorities,” he said.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Kuwait is duty-bound to afford the Demafelis family adequate remedies under that country’s laws.
“The Kuwaiti government must treat Demafelis and accord her with the same kind of justice they would accord their nationals if the same crime would happen to them,” said Roque.
He also said the Demafelis family would get insurance coverage of US$15,000; that the President vowed to complete the unfinished house of the family, redeem the mortgaged lot of the family, and grant scholarship to a Demafelis sibling.
The employers of her daughter should also suffer what she went through, according to the victim’s mother.
“Kung ano ang ginawa sa anak ko, ganoon din ang dapat na iparusa sa kanila,” said the grieving but angry Eva Demafelis. “Sana bilisan nila ang paghanap sa mag-asawa at mabigyan ng hustisya ang pagkamatay ng anak ko.”
The employers disappeared from Kuwait in November 2016 but before leaving, they made a claim to the Kuwaiti police that Demafelis left them, according to Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Rene Villa.
Kuwaiti authorities identified the suspects as Nader Issam Assaf and Mona Hassoun.
“I can’t accept what happened to my daughter. This is too painful,” said Eva./PN
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