Lawmaker hits posting of ‘sex-for-flight’ official

MANILA, Philippines — The lone representative of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Congress yesterday criticized the designation by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello lll of Adam Musa as the country’s new labor attaché in Tripoli, Libya.

“We expect Philippine labor officials abroad to be held to lofty ethical standards. The posting of an officer with a derogatory record does not conform to, and is not consistent with, such high moral standards,” Rep. Aniceto Bertiz III said.

He said when Musa was labor attaché in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2013, he was tagged in a sex-for-flight scandal that was investigated by the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The scandal involved asking sexual favors from distressed female overseas OFWs in the Middle East, such as those who fled from their abusive employers, in exchange for repatriation and plane tickets home paid for by the Philippine government, he said. 

Bertiz added that Musa was also accused of covering up his driver’s attempted rape of a female OFW who ran away from her employer in Saudi Arabia and who sought refuge in the Philippine labor office in Al-Khobar. 

He noted that then labor secretary Rosalinda Baldoz suspended Musa for one month.

He said even if Musa is new to his post, he has violated the ban on the deployment of newly hired Filipino workers to Libya, which is in the grip of a civil war, when he authorized the University Hospital of Tripoli to recruit an additional 150 Filipino nurses.