Pimentel seeks probe into OFW’s death in Saudi

Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. KRISTINE SABILLO/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III wants the Senate to look into the “tragic” death of overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Irma Avila Edloy, who was reportedly sexually abused by her employer in Saudi Arabia.

Pimentel has filed Senate Resolution No. 114 directing the Senate committees on foreign relations, and labor, employment and human resources to conduct the probe in aid of legislation.

The tragic death of Edloy “reminds us time and again of the risk to life and limbs faced by our OFWs, especially female OFWs employed as domestic workers,” he said in a statement on Friday.

Edloy, 35, arrived in Saudi Arabia on July 28 this year to work for her employer Al Sayyar Recruitment in Riyadh. But barely a month after deployment, she was rushed to the King Salman Hospital after sustaining severe injuries believed to be caused by sexual assault.

READ: Pinay na ginahasa at sinaktan ng employer sa Riyadh, pumanaw na

She died on August 18 after suffering from several cardiac arrests and collapsing into a coma.

“Edloy’s death must not simply add to the statistics of OFWs whose lives were lost at the hands of abusive employers,” Pimentel said.

He said there is also an urgent need to find out if the mandate of the Constitution to provide safe and healthful working conditions for working women is carried out through appropriate policies.

“It is arguably a necessary requisite to provide ‘full protection to labor, local and overseas,’ especially for female OFWs,” the Senate leader said.

Pimentel pointed out that Article X111, Section 3, of the Constitution provides that “the State shall afford full protection to labor, local and overseas.”

Section 13 of the same law, he said, mandates the State to “protect working women by providing safe and healthful working conditions.” RAM/rga