Deployment ban

The ban on sending overseas contract workers to Saudi Arabia continues, as that Middle East country refuses to pay P4.6 billion in salaries and end-of-services pay to 9,000 Filipino construction workers.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) had earlier disallowed the deployment of Filipino female household helpers to Saudi after complaints that a former military (or police) general in that country maltreated eight of his Filipina maids.

In a tit for tat, Saudi has imposed a ban on the recruitment of Filipino workers.

Hakim Al-Khunaizi, a Saudi investor, was quoted by the Saudi Gazette as saying that the “door for new contracts and visas will be opened only if the Philippines reconsiders the decision to send workers.”

Nanakot pa ang mga hayop (Those creatures have the gall to threaten us)!

Saudi needs us more than we need them. We can send household workers to other “civilized” countries where they will be treated with respect.

It’s a source of wonder why the country continues to send Filipino workers, especially house help, to Saudi Arabia, whose employers mostly are cruel to housemaids.

I wonder if that retired Saudi general is the same guy who, with his wife, maltreated two Filipino maids two decades ago?

The couple – the husband was a Saudi police general – were so cruel, they would kick the maids from the second floor of their home and the maids would go rolling down the stairs to the ground floor for little mistakes.

The same couple would have the two Filipino housemaids stand naked under the heat of the sun for hours on end and lash them several times.

One of the maids was rendered blind in her right eye when a steel wool, used in cleaning pots, was rubbed on her face by her female employer.

How did I learn about the extreme cruelty? My Isumbong mo kay Tulfo public service program sought the repatriation of the two maids after I learned of their plight.

I stood as a sponsor for the maid who was rendered blind in her right eye when she got married to her fiancé, a security guard, months after coming home.

With my help, the two maids were able to get P1 million each in damages, which was a pittance if you ask me.

And the Saudi police general and his wife? They were never punished for their cruelty to the two Filipinas.

If you think that the fate of the two Filipinas at the hands of their employers was an isolated incident, think again.

“Isumbong,” a tribune of the people in broadcast media, has been able to help in the repatriation of hundreds, nay countless, Filipino housemaids who were maltreated by their employers in the Middle East.

My staff and I have also managed to have dead Filipino housemaids brought back home in coordination, of course, with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

Most of the repatriated maltreated Filipino maids (living or deceased when they went home) came from Saudi Arabia.

I’m not citing all the above to brag about the accomplishments of Isumbong, but to show the barbaric treatment of Saudi employers when it comes to their Filipino maids.

In my experience – as well as my staff’s – in dealing with the repatriation of maltreated housemaids from Saudi Arabia, the Saudi employers are cruel to their helpers nine out of 10 times.

But can you blame the Saudi Arabs for being uncivilized? They were a mostly nomadic people, living in the deserts before the oil boom in the 1970s.

Arab men treat their women as sex objects. If they treat their wives as playthings, how do you expect them to treat their Filipino maids otherwise?

Most of the Filipino maids we helped repatriate complained of being raped or sexually harassed by their former male employers.

Many of the maids said they were physically abused by their female employers because of jealousy.

A gay beautician complained to us that he was raped by 20 Saudi policemen when he was detained for quarreling with his employer.

Our government, however, looks the other way or glosses over the abuses suffered by Filipino household helpers in Saudi Arabia – as well as in other Middle East countries – because our country needs dollars earned from these “modern-day heroes.”

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello deserves the highest accolade for standing up to Saudi Arabia for its abusive behavior towards Filipino workers.

*      *      *

I remember when, in the late 1970’s, then Makati mayor Nemesio Yabut and his bodyguards had a brush with two Saudi consuls.

The diplomats, who were obnoxiously drunk, were beaten black and blue by the feisty mayor and his police bodyguards in the premises of The Peninsula Hotel.

The Saudis made passes and touched the private parts of two pretty women who were the mayor’s guests at the lobby of the five-star hotel.

That incident, although not reported in the local papers (it was martial law, remember?), became an international cause celebre.

The government of Saudi Arabia, from whom we get much of our fuel oil, was furious.

The Saudis were appeased only after the government of Ferdinand Marcos promised to punish Yabut for his aggression towards their diplomats.

Everything was forgotten, however, after the police bodyguards were sacked from the service.

The mayor’s bodyguards willingly accepted the “punishment” after they were compensated handsomely. They were reinstated later.

All’s well that ends well, as the saying goes.

As a result of that incident, Saudi diplomats in the country learned a lesson in good behavior.