Text messages send 3 OFWs to Saudi jail

Three overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are currently detained at a high-security prison in Saudi Arabia for sending a Philippine ambassador malicious text messages, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

Filipino organizations in the Middle East country said they want the Philippine government to recall Ambassador to Riyadh Rafael Seguis for causing the arrest of the three men.

The DFA said Seguis called on the Saudi police to pick up Abulkhair Guro, Rawi-Ani Usman and Kamal Lomondot, who allegedly sent "hate" messages to the ambassador’s mobile phone. Seguis explained that he asked authorities to pick up the three men to avoid any untoward incidents.

The OFWs are detained at the Mabahis prison, a facility for people committing crimes against national security. Guro is the chairperson of Kasapi, a confederation of Filipino groups in Jeddah.

The Arab News reported the Philippine Embassy took the messages seriously because of the recent bomb attack in Indonesia that wounded Leonides Caday, the ambassador to Jakarta.

But the three men claimed they sent the messages because they were furious at Seguis for preventing a Philippine community school in Jeddah from conducting examinations under a program of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) last month.

Seguis, however, explained that the school lacked accreditation from DECS, and was even ordered closed by the Saudi Ministry of Education last Feb. 2.

In its petition asking for the recall of Seguis, Kasapi said the action of the ambassador was uncalled for.

"What should have been a problem between Filipinos, he has ceded to alien agencies," it said.

Arab News said leaders of the Riyadh OFW Congress had offered to mediate in the dispute between the Philippine Embassy and Kasapi.

Seguis said he has already sought the release of the three men to prove he did not harbor any grudge and was merely concerned for his safety.