Press Release
September 10, 2009

Jinggoy hails resolution of case of OFWs unpaid,
treated like slaves in Kuwait

Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada today hailed the resolution of the case of nineteen overseas Filipino workers unpaid by their employers for three months and treated like slaves at their workplace in Kuwait's Kabd desert area.

"The ordeal of these Filipinos hired by the Medco Cement and Asphalt company as machine operators and trailer and dump truck drivers finally ended, with their employer eventually giving their back wages and letting them fly back home last September 5," Estrada, chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development and the joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Labor and Employment, said.

This developed as fourteen of the 19 stranded OFWs from Kuwait trooped to the Senator's office yesterday to personally narrate their harrowing experience and ask aid from the Senator to make sure that the same ill fate would not happen again to other Pinoy workers abroad.

Moreover, in behalf of the repatriated OFWs from Kuwait, Edgar Basilio (one of the stranded OFWs), expressed gratitude to the Senator for the intercession and immediate assistance extended to them.

Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Administrator Jennifer Manalili and Deputy Administrator Hans Cacdac earlier met with Estrada at the Senate and discussed the OFWs' plight.

The senator then immediately called for legal and financial assistance to the OFWs as well as for their repatriation after learning that the workers were not paid by their employer since May this year, leaving them with no money to buy food thus forcing them to resort to hunting and eating monitor lizards and other stray animals from the Sulaibiya desert to fend off their hunger. They also had nothing to provide for their families back home, forcing some of their children to stop schooling as a result.

The OFWs were also made to live in container vans in the middle of the desert, some of which have no water supply and no air conditioning unit, making the workers bear the extreme heat in the area with temperatures at times reaching as high as 47 degrees Celsius.

Estrada had urged the POEA to blacklist Medco for the company's gross violation of the labor and human rights of the workers, as he likewise called on the OFWs' recruiters, Non-Stop Overseas Employment Agency Corp., SMA International, and Achievers Landbase Agency to immediately fetch the workers.

However, only Non-Stop Overseas Employment Agency helped by providing plane tickets to 13 of the OFWs while the Kuwaiti company also gave five tickets as mandated by law, with Estrada providing the ticket to the last remaining OFW to complete the repatriation. The Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) has reported recommending the suspension of the operations of the two agencies that did not cooperate in solving the workers' problem.

"I commend our diplomatic contingent to Kuwait led by Ambassador Ricardo Endaya as well as their labor counterpart headed by Labor Attach� Josephus Jimenez, Welfare Officer Yolanda Peñaranda and Dr. Chie Umandap for urgent action and for assisting these distressed OFWs throughout their ordeal," Estrada said.

Sen. Estrada filed a resolution to get to the bottom of the issue and investigate the labor malpractice of the employers and the alleged neglect of their recruitment agencies to defend their rights against their employers that resulted with the agonizing condition of the workers.

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