JEDDAH, 23 November 2006 — Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador in the Philippines Muhammad Amin Wali accused the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh of helping the wife of Ali Al-Saihati and his three children illegally leave the Kingdom by providing false travel documents.
“I spoke with Rose (Al-Saihati’s wife) who confessed to me that she left the Kingdom with the assistance of the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh,” Wali told Al-Yaum newspaper in a report published yesterday. “She received documents showing false names and details which helped her and the children head for her country without any difficulty.”
Rose was planning to return to the Philippines with the three children six months ago, the ambassador told the Arabic newspaper in a telephone interview. She accused her husband of beating her after his second marriage to an Indonesian woman.
The ambassador assured Rose that her husband would undertake that he would not harm her or make any pressure against her if she agreed to return to the Kingdom. However, the Filipino woman refused to return to the Kingdom with the children for the time being. He warned that the concerned authorities in the Kingdom should start an inquiry into the illegal channels by which Filipino workers are leaving the country.
The ambassador said that immigration officials at the Saudi airport should be held accountable for the easy exit of the woman and her Saudi children. The incident proved that officials did not adequately verify the documents, he said.
The ambassador met with the Philippine foreign minister and discussed all aspects of the “kidnapping” of the Saihati children by their Filipino mother.
The ambassador passed to the Philippine Ministry of Foreign Affairs all documents related to the issue. They were personally received by the director of Middle Eastern Affairs at the ministry who was entrusted with the task of resolving the issue and make the final decision with regard to the return of the children to the Kingdom.
The ambassador said the issue was being studied by Saudi Embassy officials in Manila and added that he was confident that the issue could be sorted out soon.
Rose told the newspaper in another interview by telephone that she made the decision to leave the Kingdom because her husband married another woman. “Ali used to boast that he could marry four wives, but I could not agree with it,” she said. “When I returned from vacation I found him with his new wife. Then I decided to leave taking the children with me.”
She also said that she wanted to change her children’s present Saudi nationality to Filipino. However she refused to explain the way she managed to obtain an exit-only visa for her and her children except that she had to pay money for the illegal operation.
She said she planned to settle in the United States and educate her children there. She hoped that her parents and relatives in the US would help her to implement her plans.
She denied media reports in the Kingdom that she stole some valuables from her husband’s house before she left as “contrary to facts”.
Asked what she has to tell her husband, Rose replied: “He better not visit the Philippines as the people here are angry at him and some unpleasant things may happen to him if he came here. I am saying this because I love him. I am willing to live with him but not in the Kingdom, and after the children grow up.”
