Recruiter of maid earns Binay’s ire

Vice President Jejomar Binay. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Vice President Jejomar Binay has vowed to prosecute the recruiter of a Filipino migrant worker who was illegally deployed to Jordan and experienced abuse at the hands of her employers.

Binay, chair of the Presidential Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment and the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, said he would see to it that Crosswind International Manpower Services and its associates answer for what happened to Diana Castillo, 24, who was recruited as a skilled worked for Abu Dhabi but was instead flown to Amman, Jordan, and made to work as a domestic helper.

Castillo told Binay she was abused and starved by her employers, prompting her to escape from the third floor of a building. She tied blankets and pillow cases to make a rope but fell, breaking her leg and damaging her liver. She spent three months in a hospital there.

“We will go after those involved in Diana’s recruitment. Although all her documents were for Abu Dhabi, she was sent to Jordan,” Binay said in a statement.

Castillo, a native of Taal, Batangas, made it home with Binay’s assistance and went to see him at the Coconut Palace upon her arrival in Manila on Friday.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has placed Crosswind International Manpower Services under preventive suspension.

Binay recommended that the POEA look into Crosswind’s possible liability for human trafficking.

Relating her experience to Binay, Castillo said her ordeal at the hands of her employers started soon after she arrived in Amman.

“I had only been there for two days when they started abusing me. They would spit on my food before feeding it to me,” Castillo said in a statement released by the Office of the Vice President.