Cebuana OFW in Lebanon asks government help for her repatriation

The family of a 25-year-old Cebuana, an overseas Filipino worker in Lebanon, has sought the help of the government for her immediate repatriation because she called up that her employer has maltreated and sexually harassed her there.

Maria Eva Caratao Alota, of Bantayan Island, was recruited by Mirben International Manpower Services to work as a domestic helper in Lebanon, under a two-year contract that started on December 11, 2004.

Eva's employer, for 18 months now, is a Lebanese businessman named Khalil Nehme Hamoud.

Zosima Liaguno, Eva's sister here, said she knew about Eva's situation in Lebanon three months after the latter started working. Eva called up Zosima to report her employer's maltreatment of her but they decided to keep the matter to themselves for fear of their brothers' outrage upon knowing about it.

Zosima quoted Eva's report that she could not go out of the house as her employer locked her inside and that Hamoud's wife never gave her any day-off.

Hamoud's wife also makes her do a lot of housework, not stipulated in the contract she signed, such as taking care of their children even if she is sick, Eva told Zosima, adding that she was made to have her breakfast at 3pm.

Eva's stipulated monthly salary was $200 but Hamoud kept her salary, in violation of the contract, and that she was only able to send $100 once since, as a result, narrated Zosima.

Zosima also recalled Eva crying, during one of their phone conversations, as she told her that Hamoud tried to rape her. Zosima however said that was the only information she got from Eva because Eva seemed always in a hurry to keep their conversations short and without elaborations.

The rest of the Alota family only knew this month about Eva's situation in Lebanon. This after Eva called up her elder brother Romeo to tell him that she could no longer take her employers' maltreatment anymore and that she wants go home.

"Nagputol-putol iyang estorya unya ang iyang tingog pagaw, murag nasakit," Romeo described her telephone conversation with Eva. He later called and informed his siblings about Eva's plight.

Romeo subsequently asked the group Migrante, through its regional coordinator Ritchie Nellas, to help the Alota family reached the authorities to bring Eva out of Lebanon back to the Philippines.

Last June 16, Romeo and the rest of the family sent formal letters to the Office of the President, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and Mirben International Manpower Services asking for the immediate repatriation of Eva.

The DFA in turn promised to call the Philippine Embassy in Lebanon yesterday afternoon.

After stopping her college courses in Mental Medicine and Pharmacy, Eva applied for work abroad as a domestic helper. Her brother Avelino said her reason of going to Lebanon was more of exploring and experiencing how it is to work there. - Noreen B. Napoles