POEA, not agency, should’ve monitored Demafelis in Kuwait — lawyer

It is the government, not the recruitment agency, that should have monitored Joana Demafelis, the overseas Filipino worker found dead in a freezer in Kuwait earlier this year, according to the lawyer of a former official of the defunct company that deployed the slain OFW in 2014.

On Friday, lawyer Jude Marfil, who represents Mary Gay Abrantes, the ex-former assistant general manager of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Global E-Human Resources Incorporated, told reporters that the agency's license was revoked months after it "legally deployed" Demafelis to Kuwait.

Marfil said the obligation to monitor deployed OFWs should return to the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), which issued and eventually canceled the agency's license to operate.

His basis, he said, was a provision of the Amended Migrant Workers' Act.

"...Ang liability po talaga ngayon is already with the POEA and the OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration) po, sila na po 'yan, dahil wala na pong buhay ang ahensiya," he said.

However, he said that the former officials of the agency are willing to extend help to the family of Demafelis.

Marfil lamented what became of Demafelis, but maintained she was lawfully deployed on a two-year contract to the Gulf State in May 2014.

Mt. Carmel, the agency, was set to attempt a renewal of its license but was issued a preventive suspension order in relation with a recruitment violation before it could do so.

The violation was in reference to an OFW who jumped from a window in Kuwait, he said.

"It was beyond their control, so because of this suspension order po, na-delay na po sila ng pagsu-submit ng renewal papers," Marfil said in an interview.

He explained the agency sought a 15-day extension for their license renewal after the suspension order was lifted, but that this was not granted.

This prompted the filing of a letter for reconsideration, which was also denied, he said.

He claimed Mt. Carmel's license was eventually revoked in November 2014.

The POEA in 2016 revised its rules and regulations on the recruitment and deployment of land-based OFWs. Under the rules, the licensed recruitment agency is tasked to "monitor the status or condition" of its deployed OFWs and submit a quarterly report.

But Marfil said the company operated under rules set in 2002. It was defunct before 2014 ended.

He could not immediately provide an exact figure, but he confirmed Demafelis was not the only OFW the agency was not able to monitor after its license was revoked.

Mt. Carmel's former president, Engineer Adrian Briones, also appeared at Friday's press conference. He said he divested his shares of the company in 2012, after which Abrantes' family took over.

Briones, Abrantes, and a former trainee staff at Mt. Carmel have appeared to clear their names in the NBI's investigation against Demafelis' recruiters. — RSJ, GMA News