Filipina recalls ‘sexual harassment’ ordeal in Saudi Arabia
Assistant labor attache Antonio “Tony” Villafuerte shows up at the Senate investigation on Thursday into the “sex-for-flight” scheme in the Middle East.
MANILA, Philippines—An overseas Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia appeared in a Senate hearing Thursday and recounted how she was allegedly sexually harassed by a Philippine labor official’s driver in the oil-rich kingdom.
Testifying at the joint hearing of the Senate blue ribbon and labor committees, the 28-year-old Filipina accused a certain Jojo, who was employed at the Philippine Labor Overseas Office (POLO) in Saudi Arabia as a driver of Philippine labor attaché Adam Musa.
She said she sought refuge in the Philippine labor office after her employer attempted to rape her sometime in March 2012.
The Filipina said she went to POLO’s Bahay Kalinga, a center for distressed overseas Filipino workers where she was offered to work as a janitress. There, she met Musa’s driver.
At first, she said the driver seemed like a brother to the distressed compatriots. “I thought he was a brother to us,” she said.
But she said Jojo would later act strangely.
“Papasok siya (Jojo) sa kwarto naming mga takas, hindi man lang kumakatok. Tapos tinataon pa niya na pag nagpapalit kami ng damit. Pumapasok po siya doon ng madaling araw at bigla kaming dinadaganan doon sa aming higaan (He would enter our room without knocking. He would always do that wherever we were changing clothes. He would even go there before dawn and would go suddenly on top of us),” she said.
“Then he would smile. It’s not a joke because it’s lustful,” she said.
But the attempted rape, she said, happened on August 21, 2012 while she and Jojo were left at the office .
She said Jojo suddenly grabbed her and tried to harass her for about 20 minutes even after she screamed for help.
Her assailant, she said, only stopped when they heard the nearby elevator opened.
After the incident, she said she escaped from their office and got help to work as a beautician in another area.
She said she later received a call from Musa’s employee, who conveyed the attaché’s advise to keep hiding with a promise that Jojo would be given a disciplinary action.
She said Musa also supposedly promised to give her the three-month pay of the driver and an authorization that would allow her to work outside.
She said she was also told that the money amounting to 10,000 riyal or equivalent to more than P100,000 supposedly came from Musa’s pockets.
But Musa, who was present at the hearing, vehemently denied this.
Musa said he immediately conducted an internal investigation after the incident was reported to him but he could no longer contact the Filipina.
As to his driver and employee, Musa said, “He was fired already.”
He later clarified his statements when asked again by Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and said that his driver had actually resigned after the victim came out in the media.
