MANILA, 28 November 2003 — Officials yesterday assured the family of the lone Filipino fatality in the Nov. 9 blast in Riyadh that they would get the unpaid salaries and benefits due her.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas F. Ople said the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh is already pursuing the unpaid salaries of Reylin Nuez Abarra from her employers.
In the meantime, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will be releasing Abarra’s burial assistance and death insurance totaling 200,000 pesos to her family today, said Administrator Virgilio Angelo.
Abarra’s remains were sent home on Nov. 14, less than a week since the terror attack on Riyadh’s Al-Mohaya Compound, which killed 18 mostly expatriates.
Reacting to a complaint over the delayed release of the benefits, Angelo explained that it was only last week that the OWWA got the victim’s documents.
As for Abarra’s unpaid salary of $1,200 for the past six months, it is the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) that is responsible and Ople said the labor office at the embassy in Riyadh is already doing that.
It is doubtful if Abarra’s Lebanese employers, who were also victims of the terror attack, could pay. But Angelo said the POEA could always course the demand for the unpaid salary through the recruiter.
In a statement, Secretary Ople assured Overseas Filipino Workers and their families that the embassy continues to assist and closely monitor the needs of the six Filipino nurses who were hurt in a fire that broke out in a military hospital in Riyadh on Saturday.
“The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh is in close contact with the nurses, the health care professionals who are looking after them, as well as with their employers to ensure that they receive the care they need and that they receive all the benefits that they are entitled to,” Ople said.
The Filipino victims were among several expatriate nurses staying at the Riyadh Al-Kharj Military Hospital staff house when fire started at around midnight that day.
The victims, identified as Joy Singuillo, Jeanne Molina, Lilia Dimadara, Mildred Singuillo, Janice Labrador, and Fila Mahina, were forced to jump from the hospital’s second floor to escape the fire and smoke that spread at the lower floors.
“I am glad that no one was seriously injured or perished in the fire. Nurses Joy Sinquillo, Molina and Dimadara were discharged the next day, while Mildred Sinquillo, Labrador and Mahina are still confined for surgery and observation,” Ople said.
He also commended Joy and Mildred Sinquillo for alerting the other residents of the fire.
Ople said he has instructed Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla and his staff to make the necessary representations with employers of OFWs in the Kingdom “to make sure that our kababayans are in safe working environs at all times.”
