Press Release
August 17, 2008

Five distressed OFWs from Jordan arrive in Manila

Senate President Manny Villar welcomed five overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have longed to come home and who arrived in Manila from Jordan via Kuwait Airways today.

Villar said, "We are glad that our workers are finally home, and look forward to the arrival of more of our distressed countrymen and their reunification with their families."

The OFWs are Karen Antero Magno, May Ann Tabundo Abat, Lynn Carbonel Sarol, Celia Gawat and Bailanie Lindongan Kayao.

OFWs Gawat and Kayao both escaped from their employers due to overwork and lack of food, and with runaway cases filed by their respective employers, together they voluntarily surrendered to the police to expedite the processing of their deportation.

Meanwhile, Magno and Sarol were both detained for working part-time for different employers without valid work and residency permits. Abat served a sentence for a theft case to which she pleaded guilty even if not in order to hasten court procedures.

Villar is sponsoring the transportation fares of the OFWs from Manila to their respective provinces. The said help is part of the Nacionalista Party president's continuing assistance and repatriation program for distressed OFWs dubbed "OFW Helpline," in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and Migrante International.

The Senate President said the return of the OFWs underscores the need for immediate and determined government action to respond to the conditions of Filipinos in distress overseas.

Earlier, Villar also helped bring home a number of minor and maltreated OFWs from the Middle East by sponsoring their plane fares.

"Our OFWs are considered the biggest partners of our country's economic development and they deserve due attention from government," he said.

As a budding entrepreneur 30 years ago, Villar developed his deep concern for OFWs with whom he frequently interacted, prompting him to start on his own an assistance mechanism for distressed workers.

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