Husband of dead OFW fears cover-up

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The husband of the 34-year-old overseas contract worker whose body arrived in a coffin here on Friday demanded for the results of the autopsy conducted on his wife who was electrocuted in Qatar sometime in June.

Jason Jimenez said he felt their family was being kept in the dark on the circumstances leading to the death of his wife, Marianne Jimenez, who left their home in Mintal District for Qatar in May to work as a domestic helper.

“All we have are her travel documents; her passport, her air ticket and her body,” Jimenez said as the body arrived Friday, more than three months after she was reported to have died in Qatar.

“No autopsy result, no police report in that particular district where the incident happened, no investigation report,” he said.

The hospital clearance, a requirement for the final visa exit of the remains, showed that Jimenez died of complications from severe burns she suffered in her body.

Gil Leria, the Davao coordinator of Migrante International who has just been back from the Middle East, said they would like to have the autopsy results and the police investigation reports to be able to file the necessary case against those they believed were responsible for Jimenez’s death.

Jimenez’s husband said he believed there was “foul play” involved in his wife’s death. He also said that hours before she was allegedly burnt, she had talked to him on the phone and told him she was not getting along well with her employer’s daughter.

Jimenez, a mother of three children, left the city last May 10 after she signed a contract to work as household service worker in Qatar. Her husband said she took advantage of the “fly now, pay later plan” offered by the Al Sadaf Manpower Recruitment and its partner, the Experts Placement Agency.

Leria said Jimenez was only the latest in the growing number of overseas contract workers whose yearly remittances continued to keep the Philippine economy afloat but whose rights were not sufficiently protected by the government. Leria said at least three cases of mysterious death of OFWs have been reported in the region this year alone.

“We have been asking for the documents but we were kept in the dark,” Jason said. “They only turned over to us her travel documents, but I said, my wife was alive when she left here, she is dead when she came back, we want to know what happened. Is this all they can give us?” he asked.

He also said the family has asked the National Bureau of Investigation to do another autopsy on Marianne’s body before the burial on Tuesday.