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Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Cabaero: Death in a stranger’s home
By Nini B. Cabaero
Beyond 30
The Philippine Embassy in Lebanon became the target of condemnation last week over the deaths of three Filipino women who had worked in that country as domestic helpers. The embassy and its officials were criticized for allegedly failing to respond adequately to the plight of the three women who became victims of abusive employers. The women left the Philippines to seek better employment in Lebanon; they returned before the end of their contracts, their bodies inside body bags.
Their cases reflect the challenges and, at times, danger that Filipinos who work overseas face. The three women were domestic workers: Louella Montenegro, Catherine Bautista and another whose real name could not be established. They all died after falling off their employers’s balconies.
Most prominent among the cases was that of Bautista who died last May 3 and after her appeal for help from an abusive employer was, according to her family, not acted on by some Philippine Embassy officials.
For as long as the Philippine government maintains its policy of promoting overseas employment to help the economy, such sad stories will continue.
Bautista left the Philippines as a tourist but ended up in Lebanon to work as a domestic helper. Her wish was to be able to earn, even if illegally, so she could send money back to her family. Her misfortune was to land with an abusive employer from whom she tried to escape more than once.
At one point, her employer’s wife accompanied Bautista to the Philippine Embassy in Lebanon so she could be repatriated back to the Philippines. But the embassy reportedly dismissed Bautista’s complaint as a misunderstanding brought about by differences in culture. So Bautista was returned to her employer; and days later she was found dead on the grounds of her employer’s building.
An autopsy conducted in Lebanon showed she died from the 17-meter fall from the house’s balcony. A second autopsy on her body conducted here on request of her family showed she was clubbed in the head.
An investigation has been started on the case of Bautista and the two other female domestic helpers who died under similar circumstances over a three-month period. The probe will try to determine culpability on the part of the employers and of the Philippine embassy personnel who, according to the families, could have done something to prevent their deaths.
But to the families of Bautista, Montenegro and the other woman, whatever the outcome of the probe, it will not bring their daughters back to them. This is the sad part of government’s overseas deployment policy.
Government has been promoting and encouraging overseas employment of Filipinos as a measure towards economic growth, but it cannot answer the needs of Bautista and people like her. This thrust is contrary to Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 that says government should not promote overseas employment as a means to sustain economic development and achieve national development.
It was not the Philippine government’s hand that pushed Bautista, Montenegro and the other woman over the balconies of their employers’ houses, but through a policy that encouraged them to seek employment abroad with inadequate safety nets to speak of, it is time government re-studied the policy.
(e-mail: ninicab@sunstar.com.ph)
(June 1, 2004 issue)
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