SOLON SAYS : OFWs in Saudi need lawyers not police attaché

MANILA, Philippines—A partylist lawmaker has sought an investigation into the sending of a police attaché to Saudi Arabia when distressed overseas Filipino workers need lawyers.

Gabriela Representative Luzviminda Ilagan filed a resolution on Tuesday calling on the House committees on foreign affairs and overseas workers affairs to investigate the government's decision to send Superintendent Jimmy Manabat as police attaché to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, holding office in Riyadh.

Ilagan said the OFWs needed a legal attaché.

According to Ilagan, Manabat is directly under the Intelligence Group of the Philippine National Police. This group, she said, has been tasked to conduct intelligence and counter intelligence operations against those involved in subversion, insurgency and other activities that may be a threat to national security.

One of its duties is to gather “prosecution-oriented” information and materials against certain people, according to Ilagan.

“Based on the mandate and functions of the Intelligence Group, the need for and purpose of a Police Attaché in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is highly questionable,” she said in her resolution.

Ilagan also said the OFWs in Saudi Arabia have been clamoring for lawyers to help them in their labor problems and disputes with their employers. The lack of legal assistance sent many workers ending up behind bars, she added.

She also pointed out that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo promised the Filipino workers during her 2006 visit to Saudi Arabia that she would send them a legal attaché.

The DFA also got a huge budget with which to help OFWs, but this has not been used to hire the lawyers, she added.

“The Department of Foreign Affairs itself has declared that of the almost 5,000 Filipinos languishing in foreign jails, the situation of those incarcerated in the Middle East is the worst, because of their lack of access to Sharia lawyers,” she said.

Ilagan's resolution also called on the government to immediately deploy legal attachés and Sharia lawyers for the migrant workers.

Millions of Filipinos have left the country to seek jobs overseas. They regularly send home remittances that have been credited with keeping the country's economy afloat.

Yet the diaspora has also given rise to heartbreaking tales of abuse and suffering that the Filipinos encounter in the hands of their foreign employers. - Leila Salaverria, Philippine Daily Inquirer, March 25, 2009