68 year old ailing OFW wants to be home

Press Release

27 May 2012

68-yr. old ailing OFW wants to be home; OFW group presses RP post to attend and work for his repatriation

(See attached OFW Nemencio Valencia's photo taken from the sofa of a flat where he is allowed to stay by concerned OFWs).

The Filipino migrant rights group, Migrante-Middle East (M-ME), today presses the Philippine embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to provide assistance and attend on the deplorable plight of an undocumented and ailing overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who wishes to be home.

“The deplorable situation of OFW Nemencio Valencia, 68 years old, from Lipa City, Batangas was reported to our Migrante officers in Riyadh by Leon Catameo, a concerned fellow OFW who happened had transfer to a flat where OFW Valencia is currently staying”, said M-ME regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona, who is now based in Doha, Qatar.

Monterona said, citing report from officers of the Kapatiran sa Gitnang Silangan (KGS), an affiliate of M-ME, OFW Valencia is ailing and his health condition is deteriorating.

“He stopped working for years. He managed to survive with his friends and fellow OFWs contributions for his food and medicines,” said Monterona.

OFW Valencia is an undocumented after he ran away from his employer ten years ago. He worked as a taxi driver but was forced to stop because being undocumented and for fear of being apprehended by local police.

“He tried to ask assistance from the PH embassy for his repatriation but he was told to raise 8,000 Saudi rials (roughly 90,000 pesos) as a penalty for overstaying,” Monterona added.

Monterona questioned the PH embassy in Riyadh why it failed to provide him the needed assistance. “For one, the PH embassy could endorse to OWWA or its main office in Manila requesting a budget for OFW Valencia’s repatriation. Or it could ask the Filipino community to donate so that it could raise the needed amount to pay for his penalty.”

“OFW Valencia’s status, of being undocumented, should not be cited as reason why the PH embassy did not extend a hand to help him and it continuously failed to provide assistance to him,” Monterona averred.

The OFW leader calls on the Aquino administration through Vice President Jejomar Binay, also presidential adviser of OFWs concern, to order the DFA and its post in Riyadh to immediately attend on OFW Valencia’s condition and work for his immediate repatriation.

‘I don’t think if the Saudi immigration authorities would object for OFW Valencia’s repatriation considering his deteriorating health condition. It’s just a matter of giving priority and properly attending his case so that he could be repatriated and join his loved ones in Batangas,” Monterona ended. # # #

Reference:

John Leonard Monterona

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator

Mobile No. 00974 33 20 5565