Ople Center calls for congressional probe on Joanna Demafelis case

A pro-OFW group on Saturday is calling for a congressional inquiry into the case of Joanna Demafelis, the Filipina worker found dead inside a freezer in Kuwait.

Blas F. Ople Policy Center head Susan Ople said that lawmakers should look into policies, if any, about monitoring overseas Filipino workers deployed by recruitment agencies whose licenses were canceled, such as in the case of Demafelis.

The Blas F. Ople Policy Center is a non-profit organization that assists distressed OFWs.

"Dapat magkaroon ng investigation, we should look into congressional action," Ople said during a forum in Quezon City.

Demafelis was found in a freezer in an abandoned apartment unit in Kuwait last week, more than a year after her family in the Philippines first reported that she has not been contacting them.

The Demafelis family has accused the  Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) personnel of inaction when they first brought her case to them in January 2017, four months after their last communication with her.

Ople said that the OWWA and POEA were not able to monitor Demafelis' whereabouts after the license of the slain OFW's recrutiment agency Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Global E-Human Resources Inc. was canceled in 2016.

"Let's remember that what happened to Joanna can also happen to other distressed OFWs whose contracts were processed by a recruitment agency that is no longer operational," she said.

"Kasi 'pag nakansela na 'yung agency nagsi-shift na 'yung focus niyan... so 'yung gobyerno dapat tinitignan papaano na 'yung workers na dineploy nito dapat sana merong reckoning ng records na bago namin ikansela ayusin niyo muna 'yung mga pending cases sa inyo... ewan ko kung nagaganap ba 'yon kaya kailangan tignan 'yung aspeto na 'yon," she emphasized.

Ople urged Congress to look into the "gaps" that may have led to Demafelis' demise.

"Once the recruitment agency's license has been canceled, who in government should take over in monitoring the conditions of workers that the recruitment agency had deployed?," she said.

Citing accounts from the Kuwaiti government, the OFW advocate said the Lebanese employer of the slain Filipina was wanted for a series of bouncing checks.

"How stringent are we in screening foreign employers? In the first place, how did a Lebanese citizen end up with a Filipino domestic worker considering that only Kuwaiti employers are allowed to sponsor visas of foreign workers?" Ople said.

She also urged Congress to introduce reforms in the Migrant Workers' Act that would prevent similar cases.

"In the same way that the execution of Flor Contemplacion in 1995 led to the enactment of the Migrant Workers' Act, then let Joanna's death open the doors to meaningful reforms in how we deploy and protect our workers," she added, referring to the OFW executed in Singapore in 1995. — MDM, GMA News