Speaking to Arab News on Tuesday, Migrante-Saudi Arabia Secretary-General Mike Gaerlan, who works as an electronics salesman in Batha,  said that at about 3:30 on Monday afternoon, witnesses saw Balong with blood gushing out of his mouth before he suddenly collapsed onto the ground near an electronics shop. Balong was said to be suffering from tuberculosis.

“I went to the scene at about 4 p.m. and I saw the body was still there. Nobody dared to touch it. It was there until 7.30 p.m. when the police arrived with a medical team. Shortly after that, the embassy team arrived,” Gaerlan said.

Gaerlan said that according to people who knew Balong, he was from the Visayas, south of Manila, and he had been an undocumented Overseas Filipino worker (OFW) for the last three years.

“He was living in Malaz district with a Filipino girl who had also run away from her sponsor. They have three little kids who, like them, are also undocumented,” Gaerlan said.

He added that friends told him that Balong had been approaching the embassy for help so that he could go home, but for unknown reasons the embassy was not able to help him.