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TACLOBAN CITY — At least seven Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW), three of them from Leyte, continue to languish in a deportation center in Saudi Arabia after serving a five-month jail term for theft.
The seven were imprisoned on charges of theft, said Alberto Peñaflor, administrative officer of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Eastern Visayas (OWWA 8).
“Based on the report that we have received, they were charged with the theft of a bronze cable by their employers,” Peñaflor said.
Peñaflor identified the seven OFWs as Rafe Red, Luwie Castillo, Ronnie Suarez, Jaime Castro, Jonis Basijas, Rodel Cajalne and Reynaldo Etay.
He said Basijas, Cajalne and Etay are all from Leyte. Etay is from Ormoc City, Cajalne from Alangalang town and Basijas, from Palo town. The addresses of the four others were not known, he said.
The OWWA 8 official said that the seven were employed with the ASYAD International Communications in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as technicians.
The sketchy information obtained by OWWA 8 from its central office revealed that the alleged theft took place on Jun. 10, 2008. A local court sentenced the seven OFWs to serve five months in prison.
They were supposed to have been released in November 2008 and were transferred to the Damman Deportation Center after serving their sentence. No other details on matters involving the seven OFWs were known, Peñaflor said.
He said the government was aware of the plight of these OFWs and would extend assistance to them.
In fact, he said, the government would provide plane tickets to the seven so that they could return home. But he could not say when the workers could fly back home.
Effort to contact the wife of Etay, Arlene, through the telephone number she gave to the OWWA proved futile as the phone number was “no longer in service.” /Inquirer
