OFW cries rape, torture in Lebanon

TALAVERA, Nueva Ecija – A 27-year-old Filipina domestic helper who was repatriated under “mysterious” circumstances after working for nearly a year in Lebanon has accused her employer’s son of raping and torturing her in Beirut early this year.

Marissa Agtarap, of Barangay Maestrang Kikay here, told newsmen  that the rape incident was committed by Haydar Nasreddine, son of her employer Leila Nasreddine the night of March 30 in the 6th floor of the condominium unit in El Haddas-Hay El American, Beirut.

Agtarap was presented to newsmen by former mayor Manolito Fausto whose help was sought by her mother Emma and aunt Lydia Macanas. Fausto said he will refer her case to Gov. Aurelio Umali for possible legal assistance in pursuing a case against her employer.

A mother of three, Agtarap said she was employed as domestic helper in Lebanon by the Blue Bay Employment Services, Inc. sometime in April 2006. She said her contract with her employer  Nasreddine stipulates that she would be earning $150 a month in salary.

Agtarap said during her first few months with the Nasreddines, she was treated well and she encountered no problem although she was never allowed to go out of the house except in the company of her female boss. 

But things changed when her employer reportedly maltreated her on March 30 for unknown reasons. She said she was hogtied and handcuffed, was denied food the whole day and left starving in the sala of the house.

She said that when night fell, Haydar sexually abused her. She said she could not put up resistance because she felt weak after she was injected with what appeared like a sleeping substance.

The next day, she said she woke up with pain in her body, including her private parts. She said she was brought to the office of her employment agency in Beirut and stayed there for four days then was whisked to the airport by her employer’s husband, Ahmad Nasreddine for a return flight to Manila on May 3.

Agtarap said her ordeal did not end with her repatriation. She said she was brought to the Philippine General Hospital for treatment where one of the nursing attendants named Elaine reportedly tried to strangle her to death but she was able to scream for help.

She complained that on May 4, she was also transferred to the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) and was diagnosed to be suffering from schizophrenic disorders, such as progressive deterioration of personality, withdrawal from reality, hallucinations and emotional instability.

Dr. Sarah Cariaga-Espinoza, physician-in-charge of the NCMH in Manda­luyong City, has recommended that Agtarap undergo monthly out-patient treatment to treat her disorder.

Agtarap’s mother, Emma said her daughter was clearly traumatized by the rape incident. She said she was surprised that Marissa, the eldest in a brood of four, had gone abroad and she only learned of it when she was repatriated. “She never told us that she would go abroad,” she said.

Documents furnished to The STAR by the victim’s mother showed that Agtarap’s case was referred by Nestor Burayag, officer-in-charge of the Repatriation & Assistance Division of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to OWWA Caga­yan regional director Evelyn Lara­nang. Agtarap’s husband, Milone, lives in Dodan, Penablanca, Cagayan.

In his letter to Laranang, Burayag said that the domestic, who arrived on May 3 via Emirates Flight EK-334 was turned over to the OWWA operations center by the airport police upon her arrival when no family came to fetch her. He said that Agtarap was initially “uncommunicative and incoherent” and was eventually referred to the NCMH.