JEDDAH, 20 July 2005 — The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh said yesterday it wants to take custody of two Filipino women workers who have accused their sponsors of severely beating them up.

In a press statement, the embassy said one of the victims, domestic helper Noemi Sedan Tigue, had to be hospitalized in Alkhobar on May 25 after she was allegedly beaten up by the wife and son of her employer.

“Tigue suffered severe injuries to the head and other parts of her body,” said the statement. It said that Ambassador Bahnarim A. Guinomla visited her at the King Fahd University Hospital in Alkhobar on May 30.

Tigue had been released to the Saudi Social Welfare Administration in Dammam awaiting the resolution of her case.

The embassy identified the other worker as Rona Mae Mangrubang, who left her sponsor in Dammam on May 22 after she was allegedly subjected to physical abuse.

Mangrubang filed a complaint against her employer at the Jubail/Fanateer Police, which subsequently endorsed the case to the Dammam Police. Police have yet to complete their investigation in both cases.

Missing OFW

Meanwhile, an employer has asked the embassy to help find one of its Filipino workers who had gone missing since July 13.

Ambassador Guinomla said that the embassy received a letter yesterday from Mohammed R. Al Hajry, president and owner of the company that employed Alfrand Ravara Magcanan, reporting that his employee went missing with a brand new Ford Ranger 4x4 with license plate number SHS-572.

Al Hajry, whose company bears his name and is based in the Eastern Province, said in his letter that Magcanan was residing in the company’s camp in Uthmaniyah. He was supposed to report for work in Saudi Aramco Udhailiyah. Magcanan arrived in the Kingdom only on May 20, his employer told the embassy.

Guinomla requested members of the Filipino community to report any information on the missing OFW to the embassy or coordinate with community leaders they know. Magcanan is the holder of passport no. QQ0205512 and iqama no. 2216306890.

Blood Money Claim

In a positive note, the embassy said yesterday that the long wait for compensation by the widow of Elmor Alagos, who died in a car accident, is finally over. The embassy’s Assistance to Nationals Section (ANS) has secured the payment of the blood money due the legal heirs of the deceased from the local court in Durma on June 25.

Alagos, a mechanic of the Al-Tawala Transport Company, was killed in a road traffic accident on Aug. 23, 1988, on a stretch of the highway from Taif to Riyadh. The victim, a native of San Remigio town in the central Philippine province of Antique, was 51 years old at the time of his death.

He was riding in a Volvo trailer truck driven by Yasit Choin when it collided with another Volvo truck. Both the drivers of the two were held equally responsible, as reported by the police.

Ambassador Guinomla directed the ANS staff to make persistent representations with the Durma Court until the Shariah-prescribed diyah or blood money for non-Muslims, which was deposited at the court’s treasury house, was ordered released by Judge Abdullah Al-Murshed.

Elated by the latest development, Guinomla urged his staff to pursue more aggressively similar pending cases. The ANS said it had collected the total amount of SR440,100 in blood money for the first six months of the year, representing eight settled claims.