RIYADH: An organization of undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Kingdom have reminded President Rodrigo R. Duterte of his pledge to "help them get their proper status.”
Robert Argallon, president of the Riyadh-based Undocumented OFWs for Legalization and Amnesty (OFWULA), said that President Duterte made the pledge on May 31 this year, a month before he assumed the presidency.
“President Duterte said that he’d ask concerned Arab officials to be more circumspect at arriving at solutions especially for us because we are from a poor country,” he said.
He added: “We, the undocumented OFWs, reiterate our call to President Duterte to either help us correct our status or be repatriated.”
He also said that at present, there are 800 undocumented OFWs who are OFWULA members who have sought help from the Philippine Embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Riyadh (POLO-Riyadh). He added that out of that number, there are 47 mothers with children. “Around 60 percent of the undocumented OFWs are women who were forced to run away from their employers due to malpractices and abuses,” he said.
He added that aside from the undocumented, there were at least 100 runaway female OFWs staying at the Bahay Kalinga (BK) under the supervision of POLO. Moreover, he added, there were 80 male OFWs staying at a villa rented by the Philippine Embassy at Exit 8.
The group expressed concern over the slow repatriation and the correction of the status of undocumented OFWs.
Citing figures from the Department of Labor and Employment, the group noted that as of Oct. 29, 2,191 undocumented OFWs had availed themselves of the government’s repatriation program.
Argallo said that his group was hoping that Duterte would soon visit Saudi Arabia so that he could personally hear undocumented OFWs’ plea for repatriation.
OFWs remind Duterte of his promise
OFWs remind Duterte of his promise
Saudi leadership sends cables of condolences after passing of former Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia
- Zia died at the age of 80 after a prolonged illness
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Thursday sent a cable of condolences to the President of Bangladesh Mohammed Shahabuddin after the passing of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on Tuesday.
The king prayed that God have mercy on Zia, forgive her sins, and admit her into paradise. He extended his condolences to the family of the deceased.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent a similar cable.
On Wednesday, huge crowds had flocked to the area outside Bangladesh’s national parliament building in the capital to attend the funeral prayers for Zia, who died at the age of 80 after a prolonged illness.
Zia was buried in late afternoon with state honors beside the grave of her husband, a former president who was assassinated in a military coup in 1981, in a park outside the parliament building later Wednesday.
