Ivler namesake deported from Qatar

MANILA, Philippines - An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) returned to his hometown in Calumpit, Bulacan yesterday after he was mistaken to be the fugitive Jason Aguilar Ivler.

“It’s a traumatic experience, everything I dreamed and hoped for is gone,” Jason Vivar Aguilar told The STAR in Filipino at his home in Barangay Panducot some six hours after his family picked him up at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Aguilar was referring to his nightmarish experience after he reported to Qatar authorities on Dec. 31, accompanied by his superior. He said he did not know the reason why he was arrested and jailed for seven days before being deported.

“I almost lost my mind in those seven days, I kept thinking, ‘What have I done wrong?’” Aguilar, 26, said. He started working in Qatar last Nov. 18.

He said he could not get enough sleep in the Qatari prison because there was not enough space, and food was scarce.

Aguilar only learned the cause of his troubles when he was interviewed by journalists at the NAIA yesterday morning.

He said he said he is happy to be home with his family, but wonders how he will be able to pay back the money he borrowed to pay the placement fee.

News of Aguilar’s arrest reached his family on New Year’s Eve after his co-workers called his older sister, Jeannete Aguilar-Lopez. She said they were so worried about Aguilar that they were neither able to cook the food they were supposed to prepare for the New Year’s Eve feast nor use the firecrackers they bought for the occasion.

Lopez also told The STAR they did not know why her brother was jailed in Qatar. “When our friends in the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said he had been mistaken for Jason Ivler, we were relieved because we know he is not guilty,” he said.

Meanwhile, a non-government organization assisting OFWs has urged the NBI to coordinate with the Philippine Embassy in Qatar to clear Aguilar’s name.

Blas F. Ople Policy Center head Susan Ople, who is running for senator under the Nacionalista Party, said Aguilar has been working in Doha, Qatar for only a month when he was arrested because he has the same name and birth date as the murder suspect.

"I feel sorry for Jason Aguilar who is being deported just because he is mistaken for someone else. It is the responsibility of the NBI with the help of the Department of Foreign Affairs to immediately clear up this case of mistaken identity and make sure that this innocent OFW is accepted by his employer and the government of Qatar with open arms," Ople said.

Ivler's name has been included in the Interpol Red Notice, a list of wanted persons circulated by the NBI to member-countries. Persons in the list can be arrested anywhere in the world and deported to his country of origin.

The NBI said the suspect is still in the country. A P1 million reward has been offered for the capture of the suspect in the shooting of Renato Victor Ebarle Jr., last year.   – With Christina Mendez, Pia Lee-Brago