BY SAMMY JULIAN
Manila News Bureau Chief
MANILA – A 36-year-old overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Saudi Arabia was spared from the death sentence after charitable institutions paid for his blood money worth P4.8 million (400,000 Saudi riyals or $107,000).
Based on a report from the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah, Dante Altizo was sentenced to death by the Saudi court for stabbing to death his roommate, a 27-year-old fellow OFW, following an argument at their company accommodation in Al-Baha, about 400 kilometers from Jeddah.
Altizo admitted the crime and served almost six years in prison, during which time he embraced Islam and took the name “Ibrahim.”
The Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah said it coordinated with Saudi authorities, provided legal and other forms of assistance to Altizo, the Filipino victim, and their families in the Philippines, beginning with the investigation and trial, and up to the settlement of the blood money and subsequent release of Altizo.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), on the other hand, provided lawyers for Altizo through the Legal Assistance Fund.
In 2013, just when a charitable institution in the Kingdom settled the blood money, Altizo contracted tuberculosis and pneumonia.
This act of kindness would have been in vain were it not for the persistence of another Filipino, a fellow inmate, who convinced jail guards to immediately give Altizo medical care and to contact the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah.
Altizo was brought to a special medical facility in Taif (125 kilometers from Jeddah) where, by February this year, Consulate General representatives found him on the road to full recovery./PN
