Group: RP govt liable for ‘neglect’ of beheaded OFW's case

MANILA, Philippines - An organization of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) based in the Middle East claims that officials from Malacañang and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) could be held criminally liable for the death of Venancio Ladion also known as Jenifer Bidoya who was beheaded in Saudi Arabia last week. John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator, said the Arroyo administration had “abandoned and neglected" Bidoya by not providing him full legal assistance during the entire period of the OFW’s trial. According to Monterona, it was Philippine Consul General Ezzedin Tago himself who admitted that the PCG only provided an interpreter to Bidoya, and that the OFW was only given a lawyer when his case was already elevated to the Saudi Court of Appeals. Monterona claimed Tago made the admission last Friday during the latter’s interview on the radio program of Vice President Noli de Castro. "This is what we have said earlier. The Arroyo administration acted too late with little effort to save…Bidoya. Worst, the DFA even gagged the family of Bidoya by telling them not to reveal Bidoya's case to media…This is condemnable in the strongest terms possible," Monterona said. Bidoya’s uncle, Eleno Terojas told GMANews.TV on Friday that a DFA official told Bidoya's family to keep the situation under the media’s radar so that the case would be resolved immediately. “They told us not to go to the media because it would only make matters worse. They promised us a lot of things. We pinned our hopes on them," Terojas said. Terojas said that instead of expediting the case, the DFA was even caught by surprise last Monday when news broke out that the 27-year-old native of Zamboanga Sibugay had already been beheaded in Saudi Arabia. Migrante-ME said that an insider at the PCG volunteered to provide information on how Bidoya fought back in defense of himself when he was ganged raped by a number of Saudis believed to be high on drugs. "These pieces of information coming from Bidoya's relatives and from a concerned PCG insider would lead to the conclusion that...Bidoya was not at fault because (he acted on defense) when he unfortunately killed one of the Arabs who was trying to rape him. The PCG-insider told us that (because) all the police reports and documents that were signed by Bidoya were in Arabic, these put Bidoya's life at stake," Monterona said Monterona said the PCG insider also revealed that Bidoya was only 17 years old when he was able to work abroad with fake passport and other travel documents. - D’Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV.