Bello: OFW Joanna Demafelis reported missing as early as January 2017

MANILA, Philippines — The sister of Joanna Demafelis, an overseas Filipino worker found dead in a freezer in Kuwait, reported that she was missing as early as January 2017, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said.

The body of the slain Filipina worker was only discovered in an apartment in Kuwait in February. Her remains were repatriated to the Philippines last week.

Bello, speaking during the Senate inquiry into the plight of OFWs in Middle East, said that no immediate action was taken upon the disappearance of Demafelis.

"Despite the information given by the sister to our welfare officer, no action was taken. Reason for which we didn’t find out about the disappearance and eventual death of OFW Demafelis until her frozen body was discovered," Bello told the Senate panel.

Upon acquiring this information from the sister of Demafelis, Bello ordered the Philippine Overseas Labor Office of the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait to explain why the disappearance of the Filipina worker was not reported to the DOLE.

"We received the explanation of the person mentioned and I found the reason unsatisfactory," the Labor secretary said.

The Labor secretary then ordered that the welfare officer, labor attache and assistant labor attache in the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait to be recalled.

Before the discovery of the body of Demafelis, the DOLE also found out that seven cases of deaths of OFWs have been recorded in Kuwait in a span of two months.

"We found out that we had seven deaths in Kuwait — three OFW ladies by hanging, suicide by hanging, two deaths by oxygen poisoning and the other two hindi masyadong relevant," the secretary said.

This prompted Bello to issue a deployment ban in Kuwait, which is still in effect until now.

The Kuwait government, meanwhile, had granted the request of the Philippines to extend its amnesty program for overstaying Filipino workers until April 22.

The DFA remains in close coordination with the DOLE to ensure that negotiations with the Kuwaiti government would result to mechanisms improving the protection of more than 250,000 Filipinos working there.

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