OFW sells pants to rent phone

An overseas Filipino worker jailed in Saudi Arabia for theft said he had to sell his pants just to be able to “rent” a mobile phone so he could call for help from the Philippine embassy to work for his release.

Migrante-Middle East, a Riyadh-based organization for migrant worker concerns, said it received a call from the OFW Romeo Mendoza, who relayed a plea to Philippine diplomatic and labor authorities to secure his release, saying he had finished serving his eight-month prison term at the Dammam central jail two months ago.

“Sir, please help me. I just sold my pants to pay for a rented mobile phone to place a call to you,” Migrante-ME regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona quoted Mendoza as saying in their phone conversation on Saturday.

Monterona said it was “normal” for him to receive calls from OFWs from their cells in various Saudi jails complaining that they had not been visited by Philippine embassy officials. Some want to know what is happening to their cases.

Mendoza, according to the Migrante official, was recruited by Al-Habib International Services, a Manila-based recruitment agency, in November 2009 and worked as a truck driver for Al-Thubaiti International Corp. in Dammam.