New batch of Filipinos arrive from Syria

Vice President Jejomar Binay INQUIRER file photo

A new batch of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who availed of the government’s mandatory repatriation program arrived from Syria Wednesday.

The 39 repatriates, all women who worked as household service workers, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on board an Emirates flight at around 4 p.m.

They were welcomed at the airport by Vice President Jejomar Binay and officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine Overseas Employment Agency and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

At least six of these OFWs were from the conflict-stricken area of Homs.

Cecille Cabangon, 32, a native of Catanduanes who worked as a babysitter in Homs for six years and nine months, vowed never to return to Syria again as she narrated her harrowing experience in the troubled Middle East country.

“Chaos was everywhere and dead bodies were sprawled on the street just outside my employer’s house,” she said.

‘Not a single penny’

Cabangon said her employer also did not give her her wages before she left. “I came home with not a single penny in my pocket,” she said.

Meanwhile, Binay has ordered that all repatriated OFWs, regardless of origin, be interviewed upon arrival in the country.

Binay, who is presidential adviser on overseas workers and concurrent chairman emeritus of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, ordered the mandatory interviews after the Iacat discovered that one of the workers that arrived from Syria last January 7 was reportedly a minor.

“Our staff noticed a female worker who looked suspiciously very much younger than her declared age. The passport she presented said she was in her 30s, but when she was interviewed, she admitted that the passport she was using wasn’t hers,” Binay said.

He said the interviews would help the council build a database of repatriated Filipinos and off-loaded international-bound passengers, which would help the Iacat determine the manner of deployment.