Filipino Worker to Head Home after 8 Months

Filipino household service worker (HSW) who has been staying at the Bahay Kalinga shelter for eight months will soon go home once she gets a plane ticket.

Evangeline Bonita, 33, told Arab News on Thursday that the Philippine Embassy told her she would be repatriated. This took place after Arab News highlighted her plight.

Manila-based Foreign Undersecretary Rafael Seguis had sent an email to Arab News saying that he would follow up on the case. The embassy is also trying to help another worker, Dhalia Asuero, who was also included in the news report.

Bonita thanked Seguis, the embassy staff and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration in Riyadh. Seguis is a former Philippine ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

However, Bonita said there is no certainty she would be paid the money owed to her for five months’ work. She said her case officer at the embassy told her that the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) should follow up on this matter.

“Right now I have no money to go home to Leyte, my province, from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport,” she said. “I’m hopeful that officials at the embassy and POLO will do something to help me.”

She said she was supposed to receive SR1,000 a month while she worked, which is below the salary stipulated under the labor agreement between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia signed in 2013. She said that she had no hope last week but is now looking forward to see her family in the Philippines.

(Source: RIYADH: RODOLFO C. ESTIMO JR. – Arab News)