RIYADH, 12 May 2005 — Another Filipino domestic helper has sought help from the Philippine Embassy in claiming her salary that her employer has allegedly refused to pay.
In a press statement, the embassy said Arsenia Panis, a 33-year-old worker from Tejero town of Cavite, south of Manila, had no recourse but to run away after her employer hinted that he had no intention of paying.
“She repeatedly pleaded with her employer to pay her salary, but he repeatedly refused,” said the press statement released on Tuesday.
According to the press statement, Panis asked her employer to at least advance the equivalent of four thousand pesos (about $75.00) so she could send it home to pay for her son’s tuition fee. “I don’t care,” her employer reportedly replied.
Ambassador Bahnarim A. Guinomla has instructed Welfare Officer Armando Roa to ensure that the victim be extended assistance and her rights pursued and protected.
Panis is now in the care of the embassy’s welfare section and community volunteers.
Ambassador Guinomla also expressed grave concern over what he called “excessive and unnecessary use of force” by local authorities on a Filipino man on mere suspicion of being a deviant, the embassy said in a separate statement.
The statement said Graciano Cauilan was walking on a street in the evening of May 5 when a Nissan Patrol SUV with plate no. 872 bearing what appeared to be the logo of the religious police pulled up in front of him. A police officer, he said, alighted from the vehicle and demanded his iqama and accused him of being a deviant.
The officer and his companions reportedly beat up Cauilan on the head and body and brought him to an office of the religious police, where a senior officer took pity and ordered him to be brought to a hospital.
“The rain of blows, elbow and knee attacks landed Graciano Cauilan in the hospital with physical injuries to various parts of his body including his left eye that turned bloody red when he showed up at the Philippine Embassy yesterday,” said the statement.
Told of the Filipino workers’s ordeal by Ambassador Guinomla, Cauilan’s employer reportedly denounced the brutality and promised to help in going after the suspects.
Even as it vowed continued support for Filipinos in the Kingdom, the embassy reminded all members of the community “to be always mindful of the Kingdom’s rules, regulations, laws and customs and traditions of the local society in order that they can avoid problems with the authorities or even losing their jobs.”
“The Embassy is issuing this reminder in the wake of reports of increasing arrests of Filipinos who have allegedly run afoul of local laws. Filipinos who have encountered difficulties are advised to seek the assistance of the Embassy at the Diplomatic Quarters,” it said in an advisory.