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Friday, January 28, 2005
Overseas worker found dead in Saudi hospital
By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO CITY -- An overseas Filipino worker from Digos, Davao del Sur, who was reported missing since January 11 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was found dead at a hospital there.
Suelito Leong, 40, died on January 12, a day after he was rushed to the hospital for injuries he sustained in a vehicular accident, said acting Labor Secretary Manuel Imson on Thursday.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Gilbert Asuque in a television interview said Leong was positively identified by three of his co-workers at the Al-Imam hospital in Riyadh.
President Arroyo expressed her condolences to the Leong family and ordered labor officials in Saudi Arabia to investigate the overseas worker's death.
Saudi-based labor attaché Manuel Roldan, in a report to Imson, said a Filipina nurse working in the hospital called the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (Polo) and reported the death of Leong.
Roldan proceeded to the hospital with some of Leong's co-workers who positively identified him.
Leong, who worked as a power technician at Detecon Al-Saudi Company for the past eight months, was reported missing after leaving last January 11 on board a Toyota Corolla car to get plane tickets for his employer.
His wife Amelia said Leong had been working in Saudi Arabia since 1997.
The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh said the Riyadh traffic police brought Leong to the hospital on the night of January 11 after a traffic accident.
But the report was not clear on the details of the accident.
Asuque said there were delays in obtaining information about Leong's fate because of a long holiday in Saudi Arabia.
Embassy officials are working for the immediate repatriation of Leong's remains back to the Philippines and work on the benefits due his relatives.
Amelia was brought to the hospital Thursday due to chest pains and breathing difficulties she experienced after hearing the news about her husband's death.
She was brought to a hospital in Digos City at around 9 a.m. after complaining of chest pains, right after she received a phone call from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) notifying her of her husband's death. The Leongs have three children.
Doctors continued to monitor the situation of Amelia, who is reportedly in an emotional state.
Amelia approached a local radio station on January 20 to seek government assistance to locate her missing husband.
Secretary Imson said that while the search for Leong had finally yielded results, he was sorry that efforts to find him had to end that way.
Imson instructed the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) regional office in Davao City to provide assistance to Leong's family.
"We are very sorry for the family, we assure Mrs. Leong that necessary assistance shall be provided to them since the victim is an Owwa member," Imson added.
Owwa Administrator Marianito Roque said the burial and other benefits that Leong's family is entitled to receive are being processed.
Leong's family will receive P10,000 in burial aid as well as P220,000 in insurance gratuities, Roque added.
Arroyo in Manila ordered, meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to coordinate and work closely with authorities in Saudi Arabia to determine the conditions that led to Leong's death.
"If there was foul play, we shall pursue justice for him," Press secretary and presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye assured the Leong family. (With Marie S. Neri/JMR)
(January 28, 2005 issue)
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