RIYADH, 17 January 2004 — Philippine Labor Attache Angel Borja denied the allegation made by the labor group Migrante that he was delaying the repatriation of 16 stranded workers in Riyadh.
The militant group had accused Borja of demanding letters of assistance from each of the sixteen workers.
“The allegations are not true. How could I hold them? I never subjected them to bureaucratic process by making them appear at the Labor Office to file travel documents,” Borja said. He added that he has nothing to do with travel documents. “It’s a consular matter. I did not hold them in any way. I simply asked them to fill a PTA (Prepaid Ticket Advice) request. The PTA request form is the basis for requesting PTAs from the home office. It’s an standard office procedure in repatriating overseas Filipino workers,” he said.
In addition, only six of the 16 Filipinos who went on a hunger strike in December 2003 at the Philippine Embassy here are legally documented, according to Director Ricardo R. Casco of the Welfare and Employment Office of the Philippine Overseas Employment (POEA). Casco stated this in a fax message to the Migrante labor group in Macau, a copy of which Labor Attache Borja furnished Arab News on Thursday.
The six include Jose Danny Malinog Ladiana, Paulino B. Buslon,Jr., Pepito N. Mepania, Jerry L. Ranes, Jimmy O. dela Paz, and Reynaldo M. Carino.
Migrante said that the Department of Foreign Affairs continues to extend snail-paced assistance to overseas Filipino workers in distress in Saudi Arabia.
