Friday, September 26, 2008 23 Cebuano workers jailed abroad By Katrina A. Balmaceda Sun.Star Correspondent With Oscar C. Pineda
TWENTY-THREE overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are now behind bars for allegedly using fake working permits in the Caribbean country of Trinidad & Tobago.But the workers’ families insist that their kin left the country with authentic papers in hand, as assured by their recruitment agency.
It was the employer of the group who reportedly alerted the police to detain the 22 construction workers and electricians, plus an engineer, when they arrived at the Trinidad port from Tobago last Sept. 20.
The group had sought the help of Filipinos in Trinidad when their Tobago-based employer allegedly violated the work contract, thereby canceling it.
Food and electricity, which Multitask General Maintenance Co. Ltd. agreed in the contract to provide the workers for free, were withheld from the OFW team for three months, said Lineth Gubalane.
Lineth’s brother Roberto was among the 23 hired by Multitask. The group left the Philippines in two batches last June 11 and 18.
No pay
For three months, Multitask allegedly failed to pay the OFWs their salaries and refund their airfare.
This prompted the workers to leave Multitask in Tobago and seek employment in the island of Trinidad.
According to Marisol Fortuna, whose sister Jacqueline Ann got hired as an engineer, the recruitment agency gave the OFWs their working permits only when they were about to leave Cebu.
The working permits the agency gave allegedly turned out to be “work permit waivers for one month” that would be legalized only upon payment by Multitask.
Mandaue City Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna confirmed that Jacqueline Ann Fortuna was detained in the Golden Grove Prison in Trinidad.
The vice mayor assured relatives he will coordinate with Labor Attache Florenda Herrera, the wife of Bohol Vice Gov. Julius Herrera, so the workers can be assisted.
Local link
It was the prison’s pharmacist, a Filipina, who learned from a prison official about the other Filipina’s detention. The pharmacist immediately visited the detainee, who then gave her sister’s contact numbers here in Cebu.
The website of the Trinidad & Tobago Prison Service described Golden Grove as a two-story, maximum security prison whose inhabitants include remanded inmates, foreign nationals and prohibited immigrants.
Apart from asking for their loved ones to be brought home immediately, the OFWs’ relatives asked the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to suspend the recruiter, Be Glad Worldwide Placement Agency.
The families of the detained OFWs also sought the help of Senate President Manny Villar, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in letters that they sent out last Monday.
A woman at the recruitment agency who refused to identify herself said that the company’s Manila-based lawyer will go to Trinidad & Tobago “hopefully by the first or second week of October.”
She refused to comment when the relatives accused the agency of being aware of the “fake permits” and the “one-month waiver.”
But she added that one of the detained workers recently called her and told her they were “okay and being fed.”
Torture
In their letters to Villar and to POEA, the relatives alleged that Be Glad Worldwide was aware of the issues because it had occurred before.
In a press conference yesterday, Marisol could not hold back her tears.
“It’s torture, totally torture sa family knowing that my sister is in prison with criminals,” Marisol said.
Juliet, wife of Alfredo Casona, received her last text message from her husband on Friday. Alfredo had told her the group was about to board the ship bound for Trinidad.
Other relatives, who hail from Camotes Island and other places in Cebu, still got to communicate with the workers when they arrived in Trinidad.
Out of reach
All the relatives at yesterday’s press conference, though, said that after the OFWs informed them of their imprisonment in Trinidad last Friday, their cellular phones could not be reached anymore.
OWWA officer Reynaldo Jacalan told Sun.Star Cebu that they could not directly intervene in the matter because there is no OWWA office in Trinidad & Tobago.
According to Jacalan, they forwarded the complaint to the DFA.
But acting DFA officer-in-charge Emanuel Espineli said the department has yet to hear a response from their central office, to which they sent the families’ complaint.
“It’s possible that the(recruitment) agency will have to answer for it,” Espineli said, but said he could not expound.
Meanwhile, Atty. Janet Abellanosa of the POEA said she could not comment on the matter because she has yet to read the complaint.
