RIYADH, 15 April 2005 — Dressmaker Liberty G. Odulio has been staying at the Bahay Kalinga for the last four years and may leave for the Philippines any day now after waiting in vain for the amount due her from her sponsor for whom she worked for 16 years.
According to the appeal she sent to the Riyadh governor’s office, the amount totaling $46,000 includes $1,200 as payment for 3-month unpaid salaries; $38,000 which represents 50 percent of her remaining dues, and $6,000 as service award,
“The Philippine Embassy has approached the Riyadh Governor’s office to help Odulio recover her unpaid salaries but up to now, she is still waiting,” said Minister Mariano A. Dumia, the charge d’affaires of the embassy.
Dumia said he was hoping Odulio could go home before he himself leaves at the end of his tour of duty very soon.
The embassy has requested for a plane ticket from the Philippines and the representative of her sponsor is expected on Saturday to bring the letter of no objection from the sponsor.
“This is necessary because I can’t leave on a travel document. My sponsor may complain but if she gives me a letter of no objection then I would be leaving legally,” she said.
Odulio said that she’s tired of waiting, doing nothing at the Bahay Kalinga, the center being maintained by the embassy to temporarily shelter distressed Filipino women in the Kingdom. “I am also tired of waiting for my unpaid salaries. I seem to be headed nowhere. I merely want to go home to rejoin my family,” Odulio said.
Earlier, the governor’s office decided that Odulio be given a one-month salary, one-way ticket to the Philippines and an exit visa but her employer did not honor the decision.
Odulio signed a contract in Manila to work for her employer as dressmaker for a monthly salary of $400, but she said she was paid only half the amount from 1984 up to 1994.
In 2000, she informed her employer that she did not want to renew or extend her contract but her employer did not want her to leave.
On Oct. 21 of the same year, after 16 years of working for her employer, she asked the embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) to intercede on her behalf.
“I requested that they intercede between me and my employer so that an amicable settlement could be reached and my repatriation be expedited,” she said.
She also made an appeal to the Saudi Labor Office in Riyadh Region, and as a result her employer sent a representative, Salah Mukhtar, a Sudanese national, to the POLO and informed the officials that the employer was willing to give an exit visa for the repatriation of Odulio but without the plane ticket.
“Mukhtar also gave me the passport of my son Orlando, who was an electrician and technician with final exit without plane ticket,” Odulio said. While working for her employer, Odulio managed to bring her son to also work for her employer. He was an electrician and computer technician.