MANILA, Philippines—Bailyn Pasandalan would have wanted to remain longer in strife-torn Libya and continue serving the family of the late Libyan dictator Moammar Ghadafi.
“But the security situation there has not totally stabilized,” said the 32-year-old Pasandalan, the last of four Filipino maids of Ghadafi’s family to be repatriated to the Philippines.
“Otherwise, I would have chosen to stay there. Libya is such a beautiful country and my employers treated me well,” she told the Inquirer. She said those were the reasons it took her a long time to decide to come home.
Pasandalan arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport via Qatar Airways on Saturday afternoon.
Unlike two other Filipino maids who claimed that Ghadafi’s relatives refused to give them their wages, Pasandalan said her employers gave her her entire salary when she told them she was leaving.
She said she earned $300 a month and she described her employers as “very rich.” “Their house was like a palace,” she added.
A native of Kabuntalan, Maguindanao, Pasandalan arrived in Sabha, Libya, in 2009 to work as a maid for the family of Zarouk Ahmad Estelawe, a relative of Ghadafi.
She said she initially didn’t know that her employer was a relative of the Libyan leader.
“I only learned that they were related when Ghadafi died. The authorities were also running after my boss. That’s why he and his family escaped,” Pasandalan said, adding that she was left behind in Libya to take care of Estelawe’s mother.
Unbearable, chaotic
It was only Dec. 18 last year that when she decided to leave Libya because the tensions and hostilities had become unbearable.
“The place was so chaotic, I would hear explosions in the wee hours. And it was really frightening,” she narrated, adding that she sought refuge at the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli after she left her employers’ house.
Pasandalan said she was happy that unlike other overseas Filipino workers, she did not have to escape from her employers.
“They did not prevent me from leaving. I even bade Zarouk goodbye through the Internet since he had not returned to Libya when I left,” she said. “He said I could always go back once the situation stabilized.”
But Pasandalan said she’s now having second thoughts about working abroad again.
“Right now I just want to have peace of mind. I want to take a long vacation and spend time with my family, especially my mother whom I have not seen since 2005. I heard she’s sick, so I really want to see her,” Pasandalan, the fourth of five siblings, said.
She added that her family didn’t know she was coming home.
“I wanted to surprise them.”