The 1,000-plus member Organization of Filipino Workers in Qassim (Sampiga) pooled its resources and sought the help of Filipino workers at the Primary Health Care Center in Buraidah to raise SR1,550.
“At about 8.45 p.m. on May 22, we left Buraidah to bring the money needed by Gina Dinlausu, a Filipino housemaid in Riyadh. We arrived in the capital at 11.30 p.m. and gave her the amount,” Sampiga President Dionisio “Jun” Tabuco Jr. told Arab News on Saturday. Then just two hours later Gina was boarding a flight back to the Philippines.
Gina’s brother-in-law, Sampiga member Onin Dinlausu, sought the help of Tabuco to persuade the employer to free Gina despite not having completed her two-year contract. With the advice of Vice Consul Roussel T. Reyes, Tabuco called Gina’s agency in Manila and requested a one-way ticket. Then he asked the help of Welfare Officer Cesar Chavez Jr., who was then assigned in the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in the Central Region, to talk to the employer.
“Luckily, the employer agreed, but he provided the exit visa only,” said Tabuco.
In return for the release and to help compensate for the cost of recruiting the maid, Gina’s employer took the SR500 ($133), that had taken the maid months to save, to release her prematurely.
“Gina called Onin who requested our group to do something so that Gina could have some money on her return,” said Tabuco.
Tabuco, a senior mechanical engineer at the Saudi Pharmaceutical, Industrial and Medical Appliances Corp., thanked embassy staff for their assistance.
“Both Vice Consul Reyes and Welfare Officer Chavez, who has been transferred to POLO-Riyadh, played key roles so that Gina could go home,” he added.
