Senators want Saudi labor attaché removed from post

MANILA, Philippines - A number of senators want labor attaché Adam Musa removed from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for failing to protect a Filipina from the sexual advances of his driver last year.

Musa was at the center of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee’s probe yesterday into the sex-for-flight scheme involving overseas Filipino workers in distress.

He was accused of failing to act on a complaint of attempted rape against his driver.

Grace Victoria Sales, a 28-year-old from Isabela,  appeared before the Senate to narrate the two separate incidents of attempted rape against her.

The first incident happened just two months after she arrived in Saudi Arabia, when her Saudi employer entered her room and allegedly tried to rape her.

Sales said she was able to escape from her employer with the help of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) under Musa. 

Musa led the three-person team that fetched her in Al Khobar, she added.

Sales said she was brought to the Bahay Kalinga in Riyadh, a halfway house run by the POLO.

However, she was not repatriated, and she worked as a janitress at the POLO for a salary of around $300 a month, higher than what she received as a domestic helper, she added.

Sales accused Musa’s driver, a certain Jojo Casicas, of harassing her at the Bahay Kalinga.

Casicas often went into their quarters, usually when they were getting dressed, she added.  – With Mayen Jaymalin