RIYADH, 26 September 2004 — A veterinarian who wrote a poem eight years ago in memory of a dead Filipino domestic worker lamented yesterday that his caveat have largely gone unheeded.
“You came to a land with your hopes and your dreams...But it’s not Eden!...the fruits have gone sour, the master has gone mad, there’s an animal wanting to devour,” warned Alfredo J. Ganapin in the poem entitled To Elisa Salem and Others Who Suffered the Same Fate.”
Elisa Salem was a maid who died on July 27, 1996, after allegedly jumping from the house of her employer in Jordan in a bid to escape alleged abuse.
“The reports of her death so struck me in grief and anger at that time so I wrote a simple poem in her memory,” said Ganapin, a doctor of veterinary medicine who is also an active member of groups in Riyadh helping distressed OFWs and campaigning for the rights of migrant Filipinos.
In an e-mail to fellow campaigners, Ganapin recalled Salem’s case amid the recent wave of deaths of Filipino maids while reportedly trying to escape from their employers.
Among these unfortunate OFWs were Hera Olandres (Aug. 24), Luz Pacuan (May 16), Catherine Bautista (May 4) and Louella Montenegro (Feb. 24), who were all employed in Lebanon.
Ganapin noted that all four cases — for which some staff of the Philippine mission in Lebanon and of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) are under investigation — were all illegally recruited workers.
“But documentation and legal contracts are not a guarantee that a worker will end up with a kind employer,” he said, citing the cases of Milagrina Guinacaran, who died on July 1 and Erna Barranco, who died in August.
The deaths of Guinaracan and Barranco were both attributed to severe physical injuries allegedly inflicted upon them by their violent employers. Both victims were employed in Riyadh.
Guinaracan died at home in Isabela province, northern Philippines, five days after she was repatriated. Barranco was brought to a hospital in Riyadh by a man for treatment of bodily injuries but she did not survive. According to the Philippine Embassy, police had taken into custody a Saudi woman and a Moroccan woman presumably for investigation in connection with the case.
Also in Riyadh, a Filipino woman from Mindanao broke her legs just recently after she jumped from the wall in the house where she was working. Fortunately for her, a staff of the Philippine Embassy immediately came to her rescue and brought her to hospital for treatment. What’s more, Diplomatic Quarter police helped file a criminal case against the OFW’s employer.
There have been other cases of Filipino domestic helpers jumping from their places of work to escape abuses elsewhere in the world, including Kuwait, the United Emirates, Hong Kong and Singapore. Cases of maids being burned in the face with hot iron have been reported in Hong Kong and Singapore.
In his poem, Ganapin laments that the wish of many Filipinos for an end to the sufferings of fellow OFWs may not happen in the near future.
“This, I’m afraid, is the sad fate that we will continue to witness as long as we have with us the Diaspora and as long as we come to other shores to earn a living...,” he said.
The good thing, he said, is that the situation is not that hopeless for as long as there are individuals and groups who care to help those unfortunate members of the so-called Diaspora.
In Riyadh and Jeddah, for instance, several community organizations maintain a healthy relationship with the Philippine missions, not only monitoring cases but also helping protect or take care of distressed OFWs.
