Press Release
April 25, 2008

Eight modern-day heroes' Mindanao homecoming
Villar brings repatriated OFW to her hometown in Tagum City

Like the six minor overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Jordan who returned to Mindanao last Tuesday, two more OFWs are coming home today. One of them is being accompanied by Senate President Manny Villar to her hometown in Tagum City today.

The OFWs, Salama Bakal, 28, from Cotabato City and Fennie Tiletile, 48, from Tagum City, are two of the five OFWs who ran away from their employers in Abu Dhabi and arrived yesterday in Manila.

Bakal and Tiletile's plane fares to Manila and Mindanao were sponsored by Villar, including those of three other OFWs who arrived with them yesterday.

Accompanied by Villar, Tiletile will be fetched by her husband and two children at the Davao International Airport. A native of Agusan del Norte, Tiletile said she was made to overwork as a househelp while denied adequate food. Her salary was inadequate and not given on time. She received only an equivalent of P5,000 for the two months of stay at her employers' home while her contract stipulated an equivalent of P10,000 salary per month.

Tiletile and Bakal, during their visit to the office of Villar yesterday, were each given a cart of sari-sari pangkabuhayan goodies by the Senate president. A team of Senate doctors also performed checkups on them.

They were among the OFWs whom Villar met during the Senate president's trip to Abu Dhabi. Villar was informed that they could not return to the country because they had no money for their airfares.

They arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal I via Etihad Airways yesterday afternoon along with three other OFWs Lea Malunes, 27, from Camarines Sur; Bernadette Romero, 38, from Cavite; and Luciana Lunar, 44, from Batangas.

"The OFWs are considered the biggest partners of our country's economic development and they deserve due attention from government," Senate President Villar stressed.

He said the return of the five OFWs underscores the need for immediate and determined government action to alleviate the conditions of Filipinos in distress around the world.

Last Monday, Villar also welcomed at least eight arriving maltreated OFWs, six of whom were minors, whose airfares he likewise sponsored. Villar has sent at least eight OFWs back to Mindanao, including Tiletile and Bakal.

As a budding entrepreneur 30 years ago, Villar developed his deep concern for OFWs with whom he frequently interacted, prompting him to start on his own an assistance mechanism for distressed workers.

News Latest News Feed