RIYADH, 8 November — Fatma Songcuya came to the Kingdom on Jan. 15, 1992, to work as a domestic helper. If things go as planned, she will return home today to Pagadian City in the southern Philippines for the first time.
That’s almost 11 years and it could be a record. What makes her case all the more unbelievable was that in the entire decade that she had been in Riyadh, she had not met a single kabayan, or compatriot. Or so she claims.
It was only on Sept. 21 when she finally got the chance to run away from her employer and sought the help of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) at the Philippine Embassy.
"I really wanted to see my family. I wanted to know whether my parents are still alive or not," she said in an interview on Tuesday night at the residence of Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla.
Songcuya said the last communication she had with her parents was nine years ago.
In obedience of the house rules set by her employers, she never answered a phone call and the doorbell. Apart from being denied any off-day and her freedom to meet and converse with other people, her salary was also not paid for the last six years.
But Soncuya also said she had never been maltreated nor physically harmed by her sponsors. Not once.
"They treated me very well and considered me a real member of their family," she said in Tagalog. In fact, she added, whenever she got sick, her employer sent her to hospital.
That’s one of those rare moments that she was able to see the "outside world." She chose to stay in the house, rather than go shopping with the family.
"I’ve never been to a shopping mall. They (employers) were the ones who buy my personal stuff like lotion, shampoo, or bathsoap. I don’t know Bat’ha," she said.
Bat’ha is the central district in Riyadh frequented by Filipino expatriates, especially during weekends.
To flee or not to flee
For one who has been accepted as member of the family, the thought of running away from her employer was agonizing.
When she came to work for her employers, the couple had 3 children with the eldest daughter in Grade 2. Now, they have six kids and the eldest is a first year college student.
"The children kiss me before going to school and when they arrive from school. They all call me ‘Mama,’" said a teary-eyed Songcuya, now nearing 36 years old.
Barely seven months with her sponsors, Marife converted to Islam and she was renamed Fatma, after her sponsor’s late mother.
When overstretched, however, patience is sure to snap. The last straw was when her employer again denied her request for a three-month vacation before the previous schoolyear ended. What that meant was that she would have to wait for another year. There was no way, she thought, that she would be allowed to go on vacation during the school year.
And so on the night of Sept. 21, when no one was watching, she slipped out of her employer’s apartment, hailed a taxicab and asked to be brought to Bat’ha.
"It was already 9 o’clock in the evening so I decided to ask the driver to drop me at Bat’ha where I met Jessie, a Filipino engineer who took me home to meet his wife, and then the following morning the couple escorted me to the embassy," she recounted.
All’s well that ends well
The good thing about the case was that it did not take long to be resolved.
According to Case Officer Bajunaid Andi, Songcuya was immediately endorsed to the Saudi Social Welfare Administration (SSWA) on Sept. 25.
Summoned by the court, the male sponsor, an executive of a big company, appeared for the first time on Oct. 19 and was confronted with the woman’s plight. He immediately acknowledged not paying his maid’s salary for six years and not giving her any vacation.
When he appeared for the second time on Nov. 5, the employer, Mohammed Janan Al-Dasem, had with him a US$11,183 check.
"My boss said sorry for the promises that he had constantly broken. Tons of promises that made me believe I would be allowed to have my vacation," said Songcuya.
She said her remorseful former boss even asked her to write to him in case there was a problem encashing the check. Al-Dasem also gave her 4,500 riyals as hadiyah from his children.
In the course of the interview, Ambassador Guinomla asked why Songcuya never tried to contact the embassy for help all these years. All she could say was that she did not have any contact number of the embassy despite her claim that she attended a Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS) in Manila, a requirement for all Filipinos going to work abroad for the first time.
Labor Attaché Jainal Rasul, however, said Soncuya later admitted that she herself decided not to go home the first time she had the chance to, for deeply personal reasons. "According to her, she felt bad when her boyfriend married someone else. That was in her first year in the Kingdom," Rasul said in a telephone interview.
"This is a classic example of a never-too-late-to-return-home story. She was torn between two families when she came to love the family of her employer. Now she is going back to her original family," Rasul said.
Distressed workers
Songcuya is only one of the more than 60 distressed workers currently being assisted by the POLO.
"Almost half of them are now waiting for their tickets from the (recruitment) agencies and OWWA, and about 15 have continuous hearings at the Saudi Labor Office" said Rasul.
In October, POLO was able to repatriate 80 of its wards housed at the Bahay Kalinga. And in the next couple of weeks, POLO expects that at least 30 more will be repatriated.
Apart from assisting Soncuya in filing her claim against her employer, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) also provided her counseling, such as on how to prepare to reintegrate herself into the society at home, and how to wisely spend the fruit of her unbelievable perseverance.
At the current dollar to peso exchange rate, the dollar check she received is almost 600,000 pesos, a windfall that other OFWs receiving higher pay may not easily be able to put up.
But half a million pesos, said Rasul, could easily go up in smoke if the owner is not careful.
Ambassador Guinomla said the advice they could give her is to keep her money in the bank, scout for possible business ventures, or to practice the profession that she left.
Songcuya has a Bachelor of Science in Education (BSE) degree but with a pay of only 3,000 pesos then, she opted to work as a domestic helper abroad.
"Since there’s a lack of teachers in our country, and she claims to be a BSE graduate, I advise her to teach. She could take a refresher course to do that."
"Or if she wants to venture into business, she must seek assistance from government agencies such as OWWA and Department of Trade and Industry," the ambassadoralso said.
It’s also never too late for her to meet the man of her life, said POLO-OWWA personnel.
Asked to sum up the lessons learned from Soncuya’s life story, Guinomla said domestic helpers should seek assistance from the Philippine Embassy and not try to hide because they could only complicate their problems.
Female domestic workers, he said, should seek assistance and refuge at the nearest Saudi Welfare Office (or office for Domestic Workers Affairs) either directly or through the assistance or endorsement by the embassy or POLO. For family drivers, they can seek assistance or remedies at the office of the Governor or at the Civil Rights Office.
On Songcuya’s "incredible" patience, loyalty, and obedience, Guinomla said: "It was never too late to say no, and fight forwhat was due to her. It was never too late to finally decide to leave her employer, who had been very, very kind to her through all these years. And it was never too late to realize that she has her own family in the Philippines, and a life of her own."