Kin of DH killed in Kuwait seek Palace help

STO. TOMAS, Pangasinan — The family of a Pangasinense domestic helper reportedly strangled to death by her Nepalese co-worker in Kuwait last May 27 is seeking the help of President Arroyo to repatriate her remains soonest.

"Madam President, please help us bring home the body of Mailene Barroga," appealed her husband, Romeo.

Undersecretary for Local Governance Antonio Villar Jr., who hails from this town and whose wife, Vivien, is the incumbent mayor, said he sent the President a letter last June 1 seeking her help to bring home the remains of Mailene, 39, whose family resides in Barangay Sto. Niño here.

Mayor Villar was approached by Romeo who learned about his wife’s killing when one of her friends returned home last May 28 and relayed the bad news to her uncle, Rodolfo Piquet, via a text message. She had given Piquet’s cellphone number to her friends in Kuwait in case of emergency.

Piquet confirmed the sad news from Mailene’s Filipina neighbor in Kuwait.

As described by Mailene’s friend, her head was swollen and her face and body bore contusions and cuts. The suspect fled after the incident.

Undersecretary Villar initially wrote Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration chief Marianito Roque last May 29, but got no clear reply on any action on Mailene’s case.

In his letter to the President, Villar said there was "not even a formal communication from the agencies concerned to confirm her death."

He quoted the Department of Foreign Affairs as saying that Mailene’s remains would be shipped to the country in a month’s time yet.

"This is bothersome to (her) family and even to us," Villar said in his letter.

He said he is hoping that the President’s intervention would "hasten the delivery of justice (for Mailene) and the (repatriation) of her body to her loved ones in the soonest possible time."

Mailene, who left a nine-year-old son, used to sew curtains to earn money before she decided to work abroad. Her husband is a part-time farmer.