Poverty drove jailed Pinay teacher to work in Kuwait

SURIGAO CITY — The Filipina teacher who was sentenced to death in Kuwait for allegedly killing her employer was driven to work abroad due to poverty.

Like the millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who seek greener pastures abroad, 33-year-old Marilou Ranario left the country to work as a domestic helper because she could not find a local job, despite having a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from the Northeastern Mindanao Colleges (NEMCO), one of the oldest private colleges in the Caraga region.

Ranario’s college degree could have landed her a job as a high school teacher in a public or private school in Caraga or anywhere in the country. But with scarce opportunities for college graduates, her only recourse to escape poverty was to look for a job abroad.

At the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Pasay City, Secretary Alberto Romulo met with Kuwaiti Ambassador Bader Nasser Ali-Al-Houti yesterday upon instructions of president Arroyo to convey the Philippines government’s concern over the Ranario case.

Romulo, meanwhile, asked the Senate to review the 1995 Migrant Workers Act to allow the DFA to get funding for a new item in its budget — a purse for "blood money" to spare the lives of OFWs facing the death penalty in the Middle East.

Ranario has two children — Raffy John, 9, and Rochelle, 7 — by common-law husband Lolito Dalubatan, a driver. She left for Kuwait in 2004.

But even before she left the country, her children were left in the care of her parents Rosario and Encarnacion Ranario in Barangay San Isidro in Tubod, Surigao del Norte while she and Dalubatan reportedly tried to look for jobs in Manila.

Ranario eventually landed a job as a domestic helper in Kuwait after a long search.

The fourth of 10 children, Ranario was no stranger to sacrifice. Her parents were ordinary farmers. In fact, she was a working student all throughout her college years. What could have been a happy ending to her search for a better life ended tragically in Kuwait.

Her mother Encarnacion claimed that since she left, Ranario sent money for the kids only three times — the first amount was P11,000, the second was P2,000 and third and last was P4,000. There were letters, though, mostly complaining of alleged maltreatment from her employer.

"She wanted to go home but didn’t have the means," her father Rosario said.

A Kuwaiti court sentenced her to death on Sept. 28, 2005 for allegedly killing her employer in Kuwait on Jan. 15, 2005.

Ranario’s parents told the local media that Tubod Mayor Guillermo Romarate Jr. and Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers had provided financial assistance and referred their problem to the DFA.

However, they claimed the assistance they are getting now is not enough to sustain their daughter’s legal case in Kuwait and they are asking the government for more help.

Reports were unclear on what actually happened in January 2005 to allegedly prompt Ranario to kill her employer. Details of the progress of her case since she was convicted are also sketchy.

But reports published in the Arab Times on Jan. 15, which was forwarded to The STAR by a Canadian who has helped Filipinos wrongly accused of murdering a Canadian national in Kuwait in 2001, showed that a hearing was held Jan. 21 to listen to the testimony of Ranario’s lawyer Abdul Mjeed Khuraibet. The session was reportedly attended by the ambassador to Kuwait and a number of embassy officials.

The Arab Times also reported that a certain Dr. Abdurrahman Fawzi and four other doctors who examined Ranario had concluded that the accused was responsible for her actions at the time of the murder.

Case papers also stated that Ranario had planned to kill her employer, who allegedly "insulted her and her people."

Party-list Rep. Eulogio Magsaysay, meanwhile, hailed the directive of President Arroyo earlier this week for the DFA to exhaust all diplomatic and legal means to save Ranario from death.

Magsaysay said that many OFWs develop psychological problems because of homesickness and problems at work. He urged authorities to help Ranario and other distressed Filipino teachers who went abroad to work as domestic helpers.

DFA records showed that there are 32 Filipinos with trials currently pending, ongoing, or who already face death sentences abroad. Of the 32, 14 could possibly be spared from death through the payment of blood money, which usually comes from private sources.

The DFA cited several cases in which payment of blood money to the victim’s family saved OFWs from capital punishment in Middle Eastern countries, including Sarah Balabagan, John Aquino, Carlos Jorge, Ernesto Bunyi, Primo Gasmen, Saturnino Urbano and Sabiano Yncierto. — With Pia Lee-Brago