RP welfare officer in Riyadh held on false charges, says wife

For almost thirty years now, welfare officer Bashir Ayob has been assisting overseas Filipino workers in distress in Saudi Arabia. Recently, however, the 47-year-old native of Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat himself became the one needing assistance, after being detained for a month now on suspicion of being liable for the death of an unidentified woman supposedly under his care. His wife Janet believes Ayob fell victim to a frame-up, and alleges that powerful Saudi officials are behind his continued detention even in the absence of formal charges against him. In an interview with GMANews.TV, Janet disclosed her husband was arrested on June 12 over the death of a woman reported to be under his care at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh’s Bahay Kalinga, of which he has been the officer-in-charge for four years now. “On May 22, an unidentified woman was brought to the hospital but was declared dead on arrival due to vaginal bleeding. Her death is now being blamed on him," Janet said. According to her, police authorities said while they were unable to identify who brought the woman to the hospital, a car registered under the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh was reportedly used to transport the woman. Janet, however, said Ayob was not issued an official car by the Embassy and has been using his own car in disposing of his duties, so it could not have been him who rushed the woman to the hospital. Even the Riyadh hospital’s staff were unable to record who brought the woman there as it all happened very fast, she added. Janet explained there are now about 140 runaway Filipina workers taking refuge at Bahay ng Kalinga being attended to by her husband, and that it would be impossible for him to remember each one of them. Held incommunicado Janet is now worried about the condition of her husband, as he has practically been held incommunicado at the Al Dhera Detention Center in Riyadh, and Embassy officials were allowed to see him only on two instances. The first was on the same day he was arrested, when Labor Attaché Rustico Dela Fuente insisted with authorities of Saudi’s Criminal Investigation Department that he be allowed to see Ayob. The second was when Embassy lawyer Cesar Chavez demanded that the CID prove that Ayob was still in their custody. “He only waved to Atty. Chavez, and that was it. Not even once did I see my husband," Janet lamented. She is now pleading with the Department of Labor and Employment, under Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, to finally approve the release of the necessary funds for the Embassy to be able to hire a Sharia’h lawyer. She said former Labor Secretary Marianito Roque originally approved the release of 50,000 Saudi riyals to cover the professional fee of a Saudi lawyer, but the change in the department’s administration delayed the release of funds. Ambassador Antonio Villamor has already sent a note verbale to the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs but has yet to receive a reply, according to Janet. ‘Just a fall guy’ Janet is asking the government to intervene in her husband’s case, and has sought assistance from the Riyadh-based Filipino organization Kapatiran sa Gitnang Silangan (KGS), a member-organization of migrants’ rights group Migrante. “He is just a fall guy. He helped many OFWs to be repatriated to the Philippines and now he is being accused of a crime he never did," she said. She refused to elaborate, however, on who might be behind her husband’s arrest. Aside from being the Bahay Kalinga’s officer-in-charge, Ayob’s duties as a welfare officer involve liaising with other local authorities on behalf of OFWs in distress, and attending to cases of sick OFWs, which includes bringing them to clinics and hospitals. Ayob started working for the Embassy since 1980 as a contractual employee. Janet, a 39-year-old nurse, joined him in Riyadh in 2003. They have a five-year-old son. KGS-Migrante chairperson Eric Jocson likewise urged Embassy officials to take Ayob into their custody so that he could be release pending further investigation on the woman’s death. “Considering that he is a staff of the Philippine Embassy, he should be given assistance and proper representation with local authorities. Failure to do so would mean that even to its own staff, the Embassy could not provide assistance; how much more then to ordinary OFWs in distress needing their help?" said Migrante-Middle East coordinator John Leonard Monterona.—JV, GMANews.TV