“I am begging for help. All I want is his repatriation to the Philippines,” Butaran's wife told Arab News on Monday. Ambassador Antonio P. Villamor has asked her to send him details of the case.
Butaran is currently at the Chest Hospital where he was transferred after a month-long confinement at another hospital due to stroke on July 5, 2007. “He can open his eyes but doesn’t know anything at all. He breathes through a tank and urinates in his bed through a catheter,” said his wife, who has been following up on his case with the consulate in Jeddah.
She visits him two or three times a week. “I visited him on Sunday but there was no improvement in his condition. I hope the embassy or the consulate works out his repatriation soon,” she said.
To see his father, one of Butaran’s two children, Joseph, applied to work as a waiter at a restaurant in Jeddah. He arrived in the Kingdom a year ago and has visited his bed-ridden father once in Taif.
The Philippine Consulate in Jeddah had earlier been coordinating with Butaran’s employers who promised that they would provide the SR31,000 needed for his repatriation, which also includes a plane ticket for a nurse who would accompany him to his hometown in Cavite province, south of Manila.
Butaran is also due to receive SR15,000 in benefits and unpaid salaries. “One year after his stroke, his employers said he could be repatriated immediately and be paid the amount due to him in eight months,” said Butaran’s wife.
But the employers had difficulty raising the amount. They requested the case officer at the consulate to negotiate a lower amount with an airline company. “The consulate told me that the previous employers would keep the promise but until now, the promise remains a promise,” said Butaran’s wife, a beautician in Taif.
Butaran had been working as a binder for the National Printing Press on Babalria Street in Taif for nearly 20 years before suffering a stroke. No one from the Philippine Consulate was available for comment.
