MANILA, 13 June 2008 — The family of an overseas Filipino worker who worked as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia cried foul over her alleged suicide as they met her casket at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport yesterday.
Remains of OFW Eugenia Baja were repatriated through the Saudi Airlines flight number CX 903, a report to the media sent by an organization of OFWs said.
The Baja siblings, together with Migrante, met her at the airport. Her body will be flown to her province in Bohol in a connecting flight this morning.
Migrante International, an alliance of OFWs worldwide, said that the family of Baja expressed doubts over the alleged suicide of their kin who allegedly banged her head on the tiles which severe hemorrhage and skull fracture caused her death. The family is pleading for an immediate investigation following different reports issued from Saudi Arabia surrounding her death.
Aisis International Manpower Agency, Manila-based recruitment agency sent Baja to Saudi Arabia to work as “patient server” on May 6, 2007. But she was asked to sign another contract as a domestic helper. “She had no choice but to sign it because she was already in a foreign land,” her family said.
Twenty-five year old Baja is married and has two children, Migrante media coordinator Jonathan Panlilio said.
Six months later, Baja called her family in Bohol and told them she has not received yet any salary from her Arab employer. She was tired, distressed and helpless, her family said.
The last communication she had had with her family was when she texted them that she wanted to go back home last January 2008. Two months later, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) informed Baja’s family that the OFW died in a hospital on Feb. 24, 2008 due to an unspecified sickness.
DFA sent them a second formal letter informing the family that Baja died of suicide when she continuously banged her head on the bathroom tiles in her Arab employer’s home.
“Given Eugenia’s frantic messages and appeals for help, we cannot discount the possibility of a foul play. We are one with her family in their call for the government to ensure that all efforts are undertaken in order to shed light on what really caused Eugenia’s death,” declared Gary Martinez, spokesperson of Migrante.
Baja’s family also complained of the inaction of DFA and other Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) officials in repatriating the body. It took them “three long, agonizing months” before their kin was brought home.
