Abuse of Pinoy domestic workers featured in Australian documentary

Two overseas Filipino workers supposedly abused by their diplomat employers were featured in a Four Corners, a documentary program of Australian network ABC.

According to the program aired on February 12, two Filipinos were abused by their employers, top diplomats who were deployed to Canberra in Australia.

The first Filipino featured was a certain Ruth, who declined to give further details regarding her identity. She was employed by a diplomat at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in 2011.

Under the terms of the contract she signed, she was supposed to be paid A$2,150 (roughly P87, 000) monthly, but she only received the equivalent of A$250 to $350 (roughly P10,000 to 14,000) a month.

"Of course, I was frustrated. And I said, well... even my family, it's like I failed them because I'm going to Australia with high hopes. I promised them, I told them that it would be a big help but then it was not," Ruth said.

Ruth said she was given a spare room where she was housed, and was only given a bed two weeks after she started working for the diplomat. She said she started working 6 a.m. and ended the day at 10 p.m. every day of the week.

Part of her job was to prepare meals for the family and to teach the diplomat's wife English. She was also ordered to toilet-train the child of the diplomat.

Ruth was not allowed to leave the house and was forbidden to speak to any visitors. She was also ordered to sign papers indicating that she received A$2,150 monthly.

Aside from insufficient wages, her passport and her employment papers were also taken away from her.

According to the program, Ruth was able to escape as she asked for help from a Filipino attache, who assisted her and hailed a cab for her while the family was out.

During her escape, however, there was a confrontation as the family came back home while Ruth was waiting for the cab to escort her to the Philippine embassy.

"I'm so scared, so I went to the room where there is no lock, so I'm just pushing, pushing the door. So he's just knocking, knocking very loud and he said, 'What are you doing? Where are you going?" Ruth said.

"I don't know where I got all my, my guts. I opened the door, and I said I want to go to the Philippine embassy and I don't want to work for you anymore," she said.

Ruth was able to leave after the Australian Federal Police were called and assisted her. It took three years for her to receive the money she was owed.

Aside from Ruth, another Filipino featured in the documentary was another woman called Eden who was supposedly abused by the Filipino Ambassador in 2011.

She was promised a monthly payment of A$2,500 (roughly P101,000) but only received A$350 (P14,000) for working up to 18 hours a day, seven days a week, claiming that she was underpaid by at least A$50,000, excluding overtime fees.

Eden was also forbidden to speak to Australians, but she managed to contact a local named Gary, who managed to sneak her out for a day and married her.

A month later, Gary assisted Eden's escape while the Ambassador was out for a few days.

Eden, however, has yet to return to the Philippines as she is having difficulties obtaining a passport from the Embassy after her previous one lapsed.

"She cannot vote, she cannot carry an Australian passport or anything like that. In that essence, she is still in limbo because of the way she left the embassy, that she's been told basically that she's not going to be granted a Filipino passport," Gary said.

"She can't go back to the Philippines to visit her family and if she did, they could then immediately turn around and cancel it and keep her there, so that's not really an option," he added.

Eden has not seen her family for seven years, including her children who are living in poverty in Manila.

"I'm not really satisfied because I'm not... I'm not whole. I know, in my soul, I'm broken... I'm broken. And I don't know how not to be broken," she said.

According to the program, the Saudi Arabian Embassy did not answer requests for a response on the allegations.

For its part, the Philippine Embassy said it has put in place protection for its overseas workers, but did not respond to Eden's allegations about the former Ambassador, who has since retired. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/LBG, GMA News