RIYADH, 10 August 2006 — Marcelo Tomagan could not believe it when he turned on the television and saw his 23-year-old daughter dead, reportedly after jumping from the fourth floor of a building in Lebanon last week in a bid to escape from her employer.

“It’s not possible. She did not have enough bed sheets to use in escaping,” a teary-eyed Tomagan, who works at a tailoring shop here in Riyadh, told Arab News yesterday.

A report by the Philippine Embassy in Beirut, quoting a local police report, said Tomagan’s daughter Michele tied several bed sheets end to end and used it to climb down from the balcony of her employer’s condominium unit on Daher street.

Michele wanted to join other Filipinos at the nearby Church of the Miraculous Medal, the repatriation center for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) waiting to be evacuated, but her employer reportedly refused to let her go.

So she opted to escape via the window at about 2 a.m. of July 28 while her employers were asleep. Unfortunately, the knots of her makeshift rope were not tight enough. The blankets flew apart and the poor girl plunged to the ground, breaking her head. She didn’t even make it to hospital, so the report said.

Tomagan yesterday said he knew for a fact that his daughter had only one bed sheet that she used in sleeping in a sofa as she had no room of her own.

“I should know it because I’ve been in constant communication with her since she started working as domestic helper a year ago,” he narrated. He said he was able to speak with her daughter a day before her death and even advised her not to escape. He said he told her daughter to wait for officials from the Philippine Embassy to make an appeal to her employer so she could be allowed to pack up and leave.

“I really don’t trust her employer because I have spoken to him on several occasions and every time we talk, he always demanded $1,200 for my daughter’s three year-contract. I tried to send the money but my daughter objected since she was not sure where the money would go,” Tomagan said.

He said his daughter had told him that she was locked up whenever her employer goes out.

Tomagan appealed to embassy officials in Lebanon to expedite the repatriation of the remains of her daughter. He boarded a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight last night for Manila, hoping that the body of his daughter would soon follow.

Michelle left behind two children and a jobless husband, who lives with the Tomagans in Angono, Rizal, east of Manila.

Tomagan yesterday said he plans to run after the agency in Manila who recruited Michelle and hold it responsible for the contract that “has never been followed” and make sure that the money, about 200,000 pesos from OWWA, will be transferred to a bank account with his 2 grandchildren as beneficiaries.

“I am also appealing to our officials in Beirut that aside from speeding up the repatriation of the remains of my daughter, they should make sure that the employer would also give Michelle’s salary for the last seven months. I vow to fight until I get justice for my daughter,” said Tomagan, who has been working as master cutter in a thobe tailoring shop in the city for 15 years.