Single mom reunited with family after maltreatment in Saudi

MANILA, Philippines - A single mother, who was forced to leave her young boy last April to work as domestic helper abroad, was finally reunited with her family on Wednesday after the Office of Sen. Cynthia Villar helped in the processing of her travel papers.

Kristine Alcaide, 30, broke down in tears shortly after she met her mother and seven-year-old son at the airport.  She was subjected to verbal abuse and maltreatment in Saudi Arabia.

Alcaide recalled her ordeal before Villar during a courtesy call. She said she  worked about 20 hours a day, serving a family of nine in Saudi.   

During the seven months of her stay there, Alcaide said she was barely given proper food and had not enough sleep because of the heavy work load assigned to her.  At one time, she suffered heavy bruises on her feet after a large plank of wood, from a bed, fell on her while she was cleaning the room.

Being a lone helper in the house, Alcaide said she usually took her meals at 3 p.m. and a second one at past 9 p.m.

After the Ramadan season, she said her employers locked her up in a room for a week because they did not want her to leave the house or possibly escape. 

“Bumili po sila ng noodles, bale seven days po, pitong noodles din. Bale sa isang araw, isang beses lang ako kumakain,” she said.  They had also rationed her with bread and tea bags for her meals.

Kristine worked at a restaurant in Manila before she went abroad to work as domestic helper. She said she needed more income to be able to raise her son, which prompted her to seek opportunities in Saudi Arabia.

As a domestic helper, she was promised $400 per month but got only about P68,000 after seven months. She received her salary only upon arrival in the country, transmitted by her employer via remittance agencies. "They did not give me my salaries," she said in Filipino.

Alcaide has established communication with her mother who resides in Las Pinas during her first month of work there. It was during the exchange of text messages that her mother, Neneng, learned of her daughter’s sad ordeal.

It was at this point that the mother sought the help of the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration and the recruitment agency. The family also sought Villar’s help last month, which helped sped up the processes that allowed Kristine to go back to the country as soon as possible.

Villar lauded the embassy staff in Riyadh for the speedy action on Alcaide’s case.  She expressed hope that the government will be able to help more distressed overseas Filipino workers after the budget for legal assistance was raised from P 30 million to P 100 million under the budget of the Department of Labor and Employment.

Villar said the government cannot turn a blind eye on the cases involving overseas Filipino workers, whose remittances reach as much as $25 billion annually. There are 12 million Filipinos working abroad, the senator noted.