Attempted rape filed vs labor exec

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has filed criminal charges before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against a labor official for alleged sexual abuses committed against overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in labor centers in one of the country’s embassies in the Middle East.

After a fact-finding probe, the NBI has recommended the indictment of an unnamed official for attempted rape and three counts of abuses against chastity.

The identities of the respondent and the three victims were not disclosed “due to the nature of the offenses charged,” according to the DOJ.

The law, however, prohibits only the identification of victims of rape.

An insider told The STAR that the labor official was recalled Saudi Arabia assistant labor attaché Antonio Villafuerte, who is named respondent in the NBI complaint.

In its referral-letter signed by resigned NBI Director Nonnatus Rojas, the NBI also filed the same set of criminal charges against the unidentified driver of a labor attaché from the same embassy.

The source identified the second respondent as Jojo Casicas, driver of labor attaché Adam Musa.

The case was also referred to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz “in relation to recommended administrative charges and further probe into other possible labor violations.”

The resolution stemmed from a complaint filed by three female OFWs who accused the official of sexually abusing them in exchange for a flight back to the Philippines from the Middle East.

The first victim recalled running away from her employer last April 18 and seeking help from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) where the official was assigned as her case officer.

She claimed that she was sexually accosted by the official last May 18 in one of the rooms in the POLO office despite her pleas for him to stop.

“When the (assistant labor attaché) had difficulty getting into her abaya (robe-like dress, worn by women in Islamic countries) through the neckline, he then tried to remove her clothes. She was able to escape his advances when she succeeded in pushing him off,” the NBI report bared.

“She explained that she felt helpless against the assistant labor attaché, he being the case officer assigned to her, and in whose hands her return to the Philippines, she believed, depended,” it added.

The two other complainants, who were also housed at the POLO after escaping from their abusive employers in the same country, revealed how the labor official had persistently asked them sexually offensive questions.

The alleged scheme was bared by Anakbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello, who accused three officials of the Philippine embassy and the labor department in Syria, Jordan, and Kuwait of sexually abusing OFWs in exchange for their repatriation.