Saudi king pardons 50 jailed OFWs during GMA visit

RIYADH — President Arroyo is personally bringing home some of the 50 Filipino workers released from jail after appealing to Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who reportedly promised to look into the cases of several others facing execution, officials said yesterday.

Sources told The STAR that the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) would be aboard the presidential flight back to Manila.

This was why some members of the Philippine delegation, including journalists, were bumped off the presidential plane and were asked to take a commercial flight instead.

Mrs. Arroyo made a similar appeal to Prince Salman, governor of Riyadh, during a call at the Riyadh Conference Palace yesterday at 10 a.m. (2 p.m. Manila time). She expressed her "sincerest appreciation for the magnanimity, benevolence and compassion" the Prince has shown "towards some Filipinos who have erred."

The President told the Prince that the Philippines is very much aware that he has personally interceded to save the lives of some Filipinos "with very complex problems" and to facilitate the repatriation of many others who were charged with minor offenses.

She also thanked the Riyadh governor for repatriating some Filipino women workers earlier this year.

There are about 800 Filipinos in jail for minor offenses here. Four are currently on death row, while seven have pending cases that could merit the death penalty.

One of the four is Sara Dematera, who was convicted for murdering her female Saudi employer in November 1993.

A Royal Decree of Execution was issued but has remained pending until the youngest daughter of the victim has reached the age of majority.

The daughter reached the legal age in December last year and was said to have demanded the death penalty. But her father reportedly was agreeable to a settlement and is demanding two million Saudi riyals or $563,380 as blood money.

He reportedly has threatened to ask for the death sentence if the family is not paid.

Another Filipino facing execution is Reynaldo Cortez, who was initially convicted to 15 years of imprisonment for the death of a Pakistani national. On appeal, the sentence was reduced to 10 years.

The Riyadh Grant Court, in the private rights aspect of the case, however sentenced Cortez to die. Negotiations for acceptance of blood money by the victim’s heirs are being conducted in Islamabad.

The other two death row convicts are Idan Tejano and Nuraisa Mabandin, who were accused of killing their pregnant Egyptian employer and stealing pieces of jewelry. The case is still pending before the Supreme Judicial Council in Riyadh.

The victim’s family, however, has not been located to initiate negotiations for the acceptance of blood money.

Mrs. Arroyo previously sent a letter to the late King Fahd requesting the grant of royal clemency for the two OFWs.

On April 16, Easter Sunday, the President stopped all executions in the Philippines until Congress comes up with a law abolishing the death penalty.

The order is currently under review by the Supreme Court, as according to the Constitution, the commutation of the death sentence can only be done if the sentence has been rendered final.

An earful from OFWs

Mrs. Arroyo is likely to get an earful about the problems faced by the army of Filipinos working in Saudi Arabia, who want help in return for filling the national purse.

Leaders of the near million-strong Filipino community, who will meet with Mrs. Arroyo, said Manila must crack down on recruitment agencies which deceive applicants about prospective job terms and send minors to Saudi Arabia, making them more vulnerable to abuse.

They said the abuse ranges from non-payment of already low salaries to physical assault, with some workers running away from employers and risking even more trouble.

Filipinos employed in Saudi Arabia are part of some eight million Philippine expatriates who remitted a record $10.7 billion to their families last year.

"A ‘guesstimate’ is that two to three billion dollars in annual remittances come from Filipinos in Saudi Arabia," making them the biggest single source of remittances, according to Manuel Roldan, labor attaché at Manila’s embassy in Riyadh.

According to embassy officials, Filipinos living in Saudi Arabia are roughly equally divided between men and women, with 80 percent of females working as domestic helpers and the rest as nurses, dressmakers or janitors.

Most Filipino males work in factories, on construction sites or as drivers, while some 15 percent have white-collar jobs, chiefly as engineers.

Mrs. Arroyo, who arrived in Saudi Arabia last Sunday, was to meet with community members in Riyadh later yesterday, and in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and the eastern city of Al-Khobar at later stages of her four-day trip.

Some housemaids face other hardships, including maltreatment, overwork and sexual abuse, community activists said.

"Some employers ‘lend’ a housemaid to other members of their family during the weekend" instead of allowing her to rest, said Gina Abitona, a 39-year-old mother of four who runs a learning center for children at home.

Abitona said much of the problem begins in the Philippines, where recruitment agencies "fool" job applicants, probably "in connivance" with employers in Saudi Arabia.

"The contracts signed back home are switched once the worker arrives here" to change the position or lower the salary, Abitona said.

Raymundo Garcia, an accountant, said the Philippine government must also ban these agencies from sending Filipinos aged under 18 to Saudi Arabia.

Finally, the Arroyo administration, "which says that our remittances are saving the Philippine economy and calls us modern-day heroes, should establish an agency that will help returning expatriates" make the best use of their savings as they virtually stand no chance of finding a job, he said.

In a related development, Vice President Noli de Castro yesterday urged commercial banks to lower charges for remittances made by almost eight million OFWs.

De Castro, presidential adviser for OFWs, also asked commercial banks to assure the availability of more bank centers to meet the growing remittance requirements.

He explained that lower charges would optimize OFWs’ remitting capacity and discourage them from using informal channels like the black market.

With lower interest rates, De Castro said it will be beneficial to Filipino workers abroad and the country while tax-paying banks would enjoy more patronage from OFWs.

The Vice President said banks could help improve the flow of remittances to the country by offering better rate charges that would encourage OFWs to send back more to their families. 

Citing figures released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), De Castro pointed out that charges for remittances from the United States to the country are approximately at 2.9 percent.

Those from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are 2.75 and 2.18 percent, respectively. Remittances from Italy are charged at a rate of up to 4.14 percent. — with AFP, Pia Lee-Brago