DOLE team to look into case of comatose Pinay in Kuwait

A rapid response team will look into the case of a missing Filipino worker who was found in a coma in a hospital in Kuwait, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) head Hans Leo Cacdac said Wednesday.

At a press briefing, Cacdac said the team has been in Kuwait even before the discovery of the body of Joanna Demafelis inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait two weeks ago.

"We have already alerted our officials on site. Meron tayong rapid response team na pinadala ni [Labor Secretary Silvestre] Bello even before the Demafelis case broke out," Cacdac said.

He said the team will visit the hospital where the OFW, Norisa Manambit, is confined.

"The rapid response team is now working on visiting her in the hospital. 'Yung mga families dito sa Philippines ay na-locate na rin and as we speak, our OWWA office is traveling to the residence of the family to assure the family of our assistance," he added.

Manambit's condition was publicized after her relatives recognized her in a Facebook post by a Filipino nurse.

Her cousin, Lady Mae Besa, said they contacted Manambit's agency in January after learning that her employer had her jailed following an altercation that stemmed from the OFW using her cellphone.

Besa and her family was told not to contact the media or the government while the recruitment agency followed-up Manambit's case.

Manambit last spoke with her family in the last quarter of 2017. The appearance of the Filipina in Kuwait baffled them as she was deployed to Dammam, Saudi Arabia, as a domestic worker last year.

She had previously worked in Saudi Arabia twice as a documented domestic worker before her current contract. —KBK, GMA News