By Joseph Jubelag
GENERAL SANTOS CITY- Local officials here have urged the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to investigate the alleged sexual abuse against an Overseas Filipino Worker from this city while working as a domestic helper in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 2017.
City Councilor Lourdes Casabuena, chairperson of the committee on OFW, said the victim, Jennifer Lateros, 32, who is a resident of Barangay City Heights, appeared before the members of the City Council here where she narrated her ordeal while she worked as a house helper in Alnosa, Jeddah starting in October 2017.
She alleged that sometime in February 2018, she was gang raped by her employer identified as Ali Abdulrahim Aljedani, her employer’s father in-law, and the family driver inside the house of her employer.
She claimed that since then, Aljedani would occasionally rape her which resulted in her unwanted pregnancy.
She added that when her landlady found out that she was pregnant, she ordered her to abort it by taking abortion pills.
The victim claimed that there was an instance wherein her landlady was able to witness the sexual abuses on her by Aljedani but did not even stop him.
She said her employer sent her home last October 31 and confiscated her mobile phones and other personal belongings.
Casabuena said Lateros, who sustained bruises on her body, was recuperating at the city district hospital and will be subjected to psychological treatment by the city social welfare office.
She said she will closely coordinate with the OWWA to track down the victim’s recruitment agency and file a criminal case against Lateros’ employer in Saudi Arabia.
The latest case involving another OFW from this city came after OFW Jennifer Dalquez, also from this city, arrived home early this month after she was acquitted in 2017 for killing her employer who tried to rape her while working as a house helper in Dubai in 2014.
Casabuena asked the concerned government agencies like the OWWA and the Department of Labor and Employment to strengthen the enforcement against illegal recruitment to prevent the employment of OFW by abusive employers abroad.