Bishop backs NBI probe of Demafelis recruiters

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Tuesday welcomed President Duterte’s order to investigate the recruiters of Joanna Demafelis, the Filipino maid who is believed to have been killed by her Arab employer in Kuwait.

Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos said the CBCP appreciated the President’s decision for the National Bureau of Investigation to find and question the recruiters of Demafelis, whose body was found stuffed in a freezer at an abandoned apartment in Kuwait City on Feb. 7.

“We support and we appreciate the decision that the recruitment agency be investigated, and all placement and recruitment agencies as [Filipino workers] were abused and victimized by their employers,” Santos said in a statement.

The bishop heads the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant Peoples.

He stressed that recruiters should be “held accountable” for what happens to Filipinos they deploy to other countries.

“It is their responsibility [to ensure that the workers] are justly and humanely treated, contracts and salaries are strictly followed, fairly given and duly respected,” Santos said. —Julie M. Aurelio