Senate orders search for accused driver in ‘sex-for-flight’ scandal
Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario and Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz. MAILA AGER/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines –- The Senate blue ribbon committee has directed authorities to locate the driver and employee at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Saudi Arabia, accused of attempted rape by an overseas Filipino worker there.
“The ComSec (committee secretary) is hereby directed to coordinate with the NBI so that the whereabouts of Mr. Jojo Casicas can be ascertained and he can be invited here to shed light on this matter,” Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the committee, said during Thursday’s resumption of the Senate investigation into the so-called “sex-for-flight” scheme in the Middle East.
Guingona’s committee , along with the committee on labor headed by Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, started the investigation on the issue last week.
Casicas being referred to by Guingona was the driver Philippine labor attaché to Saudi Arabia Adam Musa and an employee at the POLO.
Casicas had been accused by 28-year-old Grace Victoria Sales of allegedly trying to rape her sometime in March 2012 while they were left alone at their office in POLO. Sales also worked as a janitress at the same office.
But responding to Guingona’s query, Musa informed the committees that he no longer knew the whereabouts of his driver after he left Saudi Arabia.
“I don’t know his whereabouts,” said the labor attaché, adding that he did not also know Casicas’ phone numbers here in the Philippines.
Guingona then turned to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz and asked whether her office was in a position to locate the driver.
Baldoz said her office can coordinate with the National Bureau of Investigation as she promised to exert all efforts to help locate Casicas.
At that point , Guingona directed his committee to coordinate with the NBI to help locate Casicas.
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