Parents of OFW rape victim reject 'blood money' offer

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - The parents of a migrant worker from Datu Abdullah Sangki town who was raped and eventually died last April 10 from injuries in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia have rejected an offer of “blood money” by the perpetrators, local officials said.

Municipal councilor Anwarudin Kuit Emblawa, who is an uncle of the slain overseas Filipino worker, the 44-year-old Rauda Mamison Sabdullah, said policemen in Jeddah have arrested a Pakistani and a Lebanese who were both implicated in the crime.

“(Reportedly) she was beaten badly and was hit in the head with a blunt object,” Emblawa said.

Emblawa, an incumbent member of the Sangguniang Bayan of Datu Abdullah Sangki, said the victim was first reported as missing on April 3.

“Her badly injured body was found on April 10 in a garbage dumpsite somewhere in Jeddah,” Emblawa said.

Investigators had managed to extract information from the victim before she succumbed to her injuries in a hospital, leading them to the whereabouts of her attackers.

Other relatives, who have Maguindanaon contacts in Jeddah, said Sabdullah could have been abducted and brought by the suspects to a house far from where she works and, there, brutally raped and tortured her.

The victim’s cadaver was released Thursday morning by  hospital authorities to be given a decent burial right in Jeddah, according to the office of Datu Abdullah Sangki Mayor Bai Mariam Sangki-Mangudadatu.

The mayor said she extended financial assistance to the victim’s family for the traditional prayer rites.

Emblawa and the mayor both said the suspects offered to pay the Sabdullah family “blood money” for them to be exonerated from any criminal liability.

“The aggrieved family has rejected the offer. They want the culprits prosecuted for serious violation of Islamic Sharia law,” Emblawa said.