JEDDAH, 13 May 2005 — A Filipina cafeteria employee who had accused a public hospital manager of hitting her dropped the case against the manager after some people intervened and convinced her to do so, according to Okaz newspaper. The manager also apologized to her.
The public prosecution office had started investigating the case. The female employee accused the hospital manager of hitting her and pushing her out of the intensive care unit because she brought in food. He denied hitting or pushing her but admitted yelling at her and kicking her out of the ICU because she should not bring food in there. She was distraught by the incident and called her sponsor, the food catering company contracted with the hospital.
The human resource manager came in and filed a complaint through the company’s lawyer with the Jeddah Health Affairs. However, after consulting with her, the manager decided not to ask for the Philippine Embassy to intervene because they are confident in Saudi legal system, according to Okaz.
“We received notice of the complaint two weeks ago and the public prosecution office began their investigation earlier this week,” said Hassan Al-Bahkali, PR director of Makkah region Health Affairs, to Arab News. The Makkah Governorate had passed the complaint to the public prosecution office to investigate.
According to witnesses, however, they say that he did not hit her but did yell and insult her. In the mean time, three lawyers had volunteered to defend her case during the investigations out of humanitarian duty and empathy with her, according to Okaz.
