Pinoy workers jailed beyond sentence, freed

A Saudi Arabian judge has ordered the release of three of four Filipino workers who have served their sentence more than three years ago for an offense they claimed they have been wrongfully charged and convicted of. Manuel Fernandez, Julian Camat, Napoleon Abdullah Fabregas, and Milo Ramos were charged and convicted for allegedly stealing in December 2002 laptop computers worth over 100,000 Saudi Riyals while they were working as cargo handlers at King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah. Fernandez, Camat and Ramos were sentenced to one and a half years imprisonment while Fabregas, a Muslim convert, was meted only one year in jail despite the fact that they were charged for the same crime. Fernandez was released last month after signing a waiver of claims from his employer. A report in Arab News said Fabregas, Camat and Ramos were kept longer in Briman Prison because they refused to sign a statement of apology and a waiver of claims similar to what Fernandez had signed. “I and my family have already suffered so much for something I did not do. Why should I apologize," Fabregas was quoted as having said. He is hoping his employer will pay his end-of-service benefits (ESB) for 18 years of service. Nonetheless, Fabregas said he was elated that he had been cleared by the court of wrongdoing. The Arab News report said their employer has dropped the charges and a judge signed their release papers last Sunday. Another Filipino was believed to have implicated the four. He had disappeared. Ramos, in a message relayed to Arab News by the group OFW-SOS, which helps distressed Filipinos in the Kingdom, said he had also refused to sign any apology or waiver because “my conscience is clear." “That letter of our company saying we were caught in the act of stealing valuable items by the airport police is a falsehood. They don’t even have evidence to show," he asserted. “They are saying one van of computers disappeared. How could we possibly have done that?" Ramos added. Abdullah Sabig, an independent human rights activist and former member of the Presidential Commission for Human Rights, said the four Filipino workers were kept in jail much longer than their sentences because of “a series of legal mistakes and lapses." Sabig provided legal assistance to the workers after the Philippine government agreed for him to translate for the men in court. He said the first mistake made by the court was that the Filipino workers were not informed of the proceedings every step of the way in writing and in a language that they understood. Second, he said the court issued a civil verdict and never issued a verdict on the private case filed by their employer for the losses incurred by the theft of the laptop computers. Sabig, a retired officer of the Saudi Air Force, met with Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, Ambassador Antonio Villamor, and Consul General Pendosino Lomondot last Monday and discussed the case with them. He said he told the Philippine officials that he planned to file a case against the Saudi authorities on the workers’ behalf for wrongful imprisonment. - GMANews.TV