Filipino slaves in Saudi

The Government, through the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), keeps allowing the deployment of domestic helpers to Saudi Arabia.

This is like sending our compatriots to work as slaves in that Middle Eastern country where some people suffer from xenophobia, or a fear of foreigners.

The xenophobia of some Saudi employers translates into maltreating foreigners who work for them.

Especially prone to maltreatment are household workers.

Almost every day, people come to me at my office at Radyo Inquirer (dzIQ, 990 khz on the AM band) complaining that their relatives, who work as domestics, are being maltreated by their Saudi employers.

Domestic workers in Saudi Arabia who have been repatriated through the help of Radyo Inquirer’s “Isumbong Mo Kay Tulfo” program tell stories of being brutalized by their former employers.

Maricel Bubos and Marivic Cabanes, for example, have scars all over their bodies, a result of the brutality they suffered in the hands of a Saudi couple.

The two women described their stint at the Saudi household as “hellish.”

There was no day they were not beaten up, stabbed with pointed objects or clubbed in the head by the couple. Their employer was a police general.

A steel brush was once rubbed in their eyes, resulting in partial blindness.

I had Bubos and Cabanes treated by an eye doctor. They have recovered their eyesight.

Now, why does the POEA still allow the deployment of Filipino maids to Saudi Arabia even if it knows that they are likely to become slaves whose masters have the power of life and death over them?

Have we lost our dignity as a people that we allow our compatriots to become slaves in a foreign country?

* * *

Virginia Torres, President Noy’s shooting buddy, is back as chief of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) after a two-month suspension.

Torres was suspended by then Transportation Secretary Ping de Jesus for getting embroiled in a controversy involving Stradcom Corp., LTO’s IT service provider.

It is said that De Jesus resigned after the President refused to fire Torres over the Stradcom controversy.

Back at work, Torres told reporters—with a hint of pride: “There has been a lot of speculation that I would resign. Well, I am here now.”

She could have said: “They can’t remove me because I have P-Noy as my backer.”

She’s right: The President chose her over the morally upright Ping de Jesus.

* * *

Fe Shiao took a Philippine Airlines flight from Cebu-Mactan International Airport to Shanghai recently.

When she arrived in Shanghai, she was shocked to find out that she lost $3,000 sandwiched between her clothes after her check-in luggage had been pried open at the Cebu airport.

I’m sure Shiao was not the only victim of the thief or thieves at the Cebu airport check-in luggage section.

* * *

The Department of National Defense’s government arsenal in Bataan province has partnered with an American company in manufacturing M-16 rifles for our troops.

The firm had been indicted by the US State Department for alleged illegal arms trafficking.

The arsenal also wants to join hands with a South Korean company whose 6,500 squad automatic weapons continue to malfunction in the battlefields of Mindanao.

Why doesn’t DND try out the weapons made by United Defense, a 100-percent Filipino-owned company, that makes M-16 rifles that are much better than their US counterparts?

Why can’t our government trust a Filipino product?