Jailed OFW in Saudi Arabia reunited with family

A female overseas Filipino worker (OFW) jailed in Saudi Arabia was reunited with her family in the Philippines after she and her children were repatriated this month. The story of Marie Ann (Maryam) Caceres Silvestre shows a modest success of the government's accelerated repatriation efforts, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said. “The happy ending of the tragic story of the Martin family is the result of the one-country team approach," Baldoz said in an article posted on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) website on Tuesday. According to Baldoz, she received the report from Riyadh-based labor attache Alberto Valenciano about Silvestre's story. Silvestre and her children arrived on Sept. 2 on a Philippine Airlines flight, with their tickets purchased by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Silvestre was a household service worker who married Mauricio Abdullah Martin in Saudi Arabia in Muslim rites, after they converted to Islam. But her marriage was not registered because she did not have a valid iqama or worker visa, as she had run away from her employer. The couple had three children – Abdulaziz, 12, Fatima, 10, and Muhammad, 7. Last June, Saudi Arabia police arrested her in a raid. Authorities had earlier deported her husband. “When Maryam was arrested, the children were left in the care of a cousin, whose work required him to travel on a regular basis outside of Riyadh. Because of this, the cousin requested the Philippine Embassy to allow the children to stay temporarily at the POLO’s [Philippine Overseas Labor Office] Bahay Kalinga," Riyadh-based labor attaché Alberto Valenciano reported. But Valenciano said the Philippine Embassy could not say yes to the request because the facility was already full at that time. He added the eldest son, Abdulaziz, was no longer a child "and we had no space for him in a place intended solely for women." To solve the problem, Philippine ambassador to Saudi Arabia Antonio Villamor and his officials, as well as Valenciano, decided to house the children at the POLO, which took them in last August 18. The two boys occupied a small room at the third floor of the POLO where the assistant labor attaché holds office, while the girl stayed at another room of the POLO’s lady volunteer cleaner at the ground floor. Valenciano said the POLO and lawyer Dulfie Tobias-Salim, social service attaché of the DSWD jointly cared for the children, while the Assistance to Nationals Section of the embassy, led by vice consul Paulo Saret, attended to the case of the jailed mother. Embassy and POLO officials regular visited Silvestre at the Al Nisa jail for women to boost her morale. Silvestre was eventually transferred to the Saudi Deportation Center, after which POLO officer Zorab Marohombsar convinced the case officer in the center to allow Silvestre and her children to leave for the Philippines without prior clearance from the governor’s office. The Labor Department said the couple was profusely thankful to the government for their reunification. However, Valenciano said he related the story not to encourage OFWs to enter into a similar situation, but to teach the lesson that Maryam and Abdullah had learned. “There are Filipino families in Saudi Arabia similarly situated, where children were born out of wedlock which makes their parents guilty of immorality—a serious crime in the Kingdom. So this is a warning to OFWs," he said. Baldoz added the repatriation of Maryam and her children points to a modest success of the accelerated repatriation effort of the government. She reiterated the DOLE will push extra-hard to “give every distressed overseas worker any possible assistance until they are fully reintegrated with their families in the country." — LBG/KBK, GMANews.TV