MANILA, 7 May 2004 - The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday confirmed the death of a Filipino maid who reportedly fell while trying to escape from her Lebanese employers on Tuesday.
In a press statement, Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Domingo Albert, quoting a report from the Philippine Embassy in Beirut, said the body of Catherine Bautista was found in the morning of May 4 in the garden of her Lebanese employer’s apartment.
According to the statement, police found that Bautista was trying to escape “using bedsheets tied together and secured to the apartment’s window.”
Bautista arrived in Lebanon on Nov. 6, last year, said the statement. “Her deployment was arranged by her aunt, an OFW in Lebanon, who hand-carried her Lebanese visa to the Philippines enabling her to leave a week after her aunt’s arrival in the Philippines.”
“I am deeply saddened to learn of the unfortunate death of one of our overseas Filipino workers in Beirut,” Albert said in the statement. She said she has instructed the embassy in Lebanon to coordinate with the Lebanese authorities and take care of Bautista’s case.
She also said she is send a team to look into the events leading to Bautista’s death and to look into reports that embassy personnel have been remiss in their duties to protect the welfare of Filipino workers in Lebanon.
She promised that “appropriate actions” if the charges are proven.
