PM calls for thorough investigation on reported “suicide” of OFW in Dubai

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) is asking the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to dig deeper into a possible foul play committed on the reported “suicide” of a 30-year old overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Dubai.

The group is also urging the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to look into the possible liability of a manpower agency that sent the victim for Dubai under dubious circumstances.

The victim, Alona Bagayan, from Barangay San Antonio, Kalayaan, Laguna, just left for Dubai on January 30, 2013 to work as domestic helper. On February 5, 2013, she reportedly committed suicide by throwing herself out of her employer’s fifth floor apartment.

Embassy officials in Dubai told a relative of Bagayan who is also an OFW in nearby Abu Dhabi that the body of Alona is still under police custody and is undergoing autopsy procedures.

Alona’s relatives are crying for justice. They appeal on the DFA, the POEA and the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) to extend the necessary support they needed in pursuing the case and in causing the immediate repatriation of Alona’s body.

Bagayan was recruited by the Al-Masiyah Overseas Placement Agency, Inc., with offices located at Ermita Manila. She was a first time OFW.

According to Alona’s brother, Dexter Bagayan, his sister left no single document with them because all her travel papers, including her visa and passport, were handed to her by the agency at the airport before departure. But at the airport, Alona was able to call back Dexter to tell him that “nagkabulilyaso” because her visa was to expire that same night of January 30, “kaya inihabol lang daw ako ng agency”. That was the last conversation that they had.

PM said Al-Masiyah can also be held liable here once it is proven that elements of illegal recruitment attended the process of Alona’s deployment to Dubai.

PRESS RELEASE
Partido ng Manggagawa
18 February 2013

Ref: Wilson Fortaleza
09053732185

Contact for Alona brother
Dexter Bagayan
09261365604

All submissions are republished and redistributed in the same way that it was originally published online and sent to us. We may edit submission in a way that does not alter or change the original material.

Human Rights Online Philippines does not hold copyright over these materials. Author/s and original source/s of information are retained including the URL contained within the tagline and byline of the articles, news information, photos etc.