Saudi police studying rivalry angle in chop-chop killings

The Saudi police are closely looking at reports that Arabs are also among the financiers of illegal lottery operations in Jeddah and are possibly business rivals of some Filipino workers there who are operating numbers games, an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

The official, who asked not to be named, said such lotteries are patronized by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as well as workers from Thailand and Bangladesh.

"The police said it isn’t just Filipinos who are involved, Thais and Bangladeshis are also involved in the lottery," the official said. "The report also showed that the capitalists are Arabs and Filipinos and that there is rivalry (between them). It looks like there are rival (lottery) capitalists there."

Saudi authorities are also investigating a prepaid phone card scam involving Filipino workers.

According to the official, at least 10 OFWs of the 52 arrested by the police in connection with the discovery of dismembered human body parts and six missing Filipino nationals have been released after questioning.

Although some of the Filipino workers were released, the official likened the release to an elimination process as new groups of OFWs were being arrested for questioning by the police.

"Fifty-two Filipinos were arrested and 10 were released," the official said. "But for every release, there are others who are picked up so we should concentrate on the killings of the victims to facilitate the release of the arrested OFWs."

Consul General Pendosina Lomondot of the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah and Saudi Arabian Ambassador Mohammed Ameen Mohammed Wali said Friday that police are looking into a reported rivalry between illegal lottery operators as the motive in the killing of three overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and the disappearance of three others after seven Filipinos confessed to the killings.

The seven OFWs allegedly admitted that they killed the three OFWs earlier reported as missing.

The Jeddah police continue to investigate the killing of the three OFWs and the discovery of human body parts inside plastic garbage bags last April 4 in the Sina’alayh District, south of Jeddah.

Lomondot also indicated in his report that one of the three victims operated a lottery in Jeddah in competition with the lottery operation of one of the seven detained suspects.

Police investigators informed the consulate that the motive for the killing could be a rivalry in lottery operations in Jeddah.

He advised the employers of the arrested OFWs to proceed to the Janoobiyah Police office to work out the release of their employees.

Janoobiyah Police office intelligence chief Lt. Col. Abdulrahman Al-Malki informed Lomondot that the Filipinos whom the police detained but later cleared in their investigation would only be released to their sponsors.

Under Saudi laws, persons under detention while under investigation by the police can be held incommunicado for 60 days.

Hearing this, the DFA conveyed to the Saudi government through Wali the Philippines’ concern over the arrest of the Filipinos and the need for consular officials to have access to the suspects in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

The DFA withheld the names of the deceased OFWs as well as the names of the accused pending notification of their next-of-kin and to respect the legal rights of the Filipinos and their families.

Meanwhile, 17 Filipinos in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were abandoned by their recruiter to whom they had given various sums of money in exchange for work there, according to an embassy report.

The Philippine embassy in Malaysia reported to the DFA it took in 17 Filipino nationals who sought the embassy’s assistance after their recruiter had abandoned them.

In his report, Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia Victoriano Lecaros said that the Filipinos, 16 men and one woman, were recruited from the provinces, promised non-existent jobs in Malaysia, then abandoned by their recruiters when the necessary working permits were not obtained.

In his report, Lecaros said that, of the 17, eight are housed at the embassy’s Filipino Workers’ Resource Center while eight others were accommodated within the embassy premises. One of the Filipinos later left the Embassy without giving word to embassy personnel.

He added that the embassy has already sought the assistance of the Royal Malaysian Police in tracking down the recruiter. The embassy is also processing the Filipinos’ papers in preparation for their return to the Philippines.

The sixteen Filipinos under the embassy’s care are Felipe Cadiz Jr., Joubert Crisolo, Samuel Donilo, Rodio Dulay, Larry Egido, Arnulfo Etrata, Marvin Etrata, Roderick Fernandez, Rolando Gavanes, Hilario Isar, Manuel Melad, Regie Pacquing, Nemesio Pasion, Edgardo Pelongco, Jonalyn Ramirez and Orly Serrada.