MANILA, 2 July 2005 — The Department of Labor and Employment yesterday cited a noblewoman in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for coming to the rescue of two Filipino boys who were abandoned by their mothers in a hospital.
Acting Labor Secretary Danilo Cruz said that while the noblewoman or “sheikha” wishes to keep her name and her kind deed confidential, “it is only proper and fitting for the Philippine government to acknowledge this act of humanity and nobility before the world.”
A report by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Dubai to the DOLE in Manila said the sheikha not only secured the discharge of one-month-old “Baby Boy Amigos” and one-year-old “Baby Boy Mohammad” from hospital but also paid for the airfare of one of them for Manila.
Labor Attaché Vicente M. Cabe reported that both boys were abandoned at the Dubai Hospital by their parents — Baby Boy Amigos immediately after birth, and Baby Boy Mohammad after he was rushed to the hospital for treatment of a high fever.
An earlier report by another official in Dubai, Labor Attaché Florencia P. Ardivilla, said the hospital called the POLO’s attention that a Filipino mother escaped after giving birth to Baby Boy Amigos.
When POLO personnel visited the baby, they found that another abandoned boy, Baby Boy Mohammad, was also in the hospital.
Ardivilla said Mila Biscocho Devino Buenaobra, a Filipino who works as governess for the sheikha, learned about the baby boys when she dropped by the POLO. She volunteered to seek help from her employer.
“Fortunately, OFW Buenaobra ... volunteered to relay the plight of the two boys to the Arab noblewoman who agreed to help,” the official said.
According to the POLO officials, the sheikha gave 40,000 UAE dinars (around $10,890 or 609,600 pesos) to pay the accumulated hospital bills of the babies and to pay for the airfare of Baby Boy Mohammad.
Kindhearted OFWs at the Sharjah Dance Club in Dubai also raised some 1,000 dirhams (about $270) for the two boys, the POLO said.
Both boys were flown to Manila on June 23 and are now under the care of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD), according to Secretary Cruz.
Cases of babies being abandoned by their Filipino mothers in the Middle East are not rare, say some OFWs who have long been working there.
The good thing is that there are also many kind souls willing to help.
One such case involved a Filipino domestic helper who got impregnated by her Qatari employer. The employer, who reportedly holds an important office in his country, sent the maid away for fear that his wife would find out.
The maid thought of aborting the baby because she did not want her husband to know about what happened. A Filipino couple who learned of her problem offered to let her stay in their house until she gives birth and to let them have the baby if she didn’t want it.
The woman gave birth to a baby boy, left him to the couple and returned to her family somewhere in Mindanao.
The couple and their three other children are more than happy with their “handsome mestizo” son, who is now a teenager.
