Press Release
October 31, 2008

"Girlie" comes home with eight other OFWs in distress

Following Senate President Manny Villar's visit to Jordan, an overseas Filipino worker who was blocked from boarding her flight to Manila came home finally today Oct. 31, 5:55 pm, from Jordan via Gulf Air flight GF 156Q along with eight others.

OFW Guiarhata "Tarhata" Diadel, along with Fatima Abeleda, Zenefen Acoba, Subai Daud, Ivon Mabangis, Kareen Maggay, Nina Penaroyo, Marie Candie Pineda, and Noema Ikay was welcomed by the Nacionalista Party president at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal I.

Diadel was supposed to come home in April, along with eight others but was prevented from boarding her flight to Manila. She was whisked away from the airport in Jordan, brought to prison and released the following day to her employer whom she ran away from due to maltreatment.

Diadel was "Girlie" in Villar's OFW Helpline radio ad who narrated, "Nung nagpapainit ako ng tubig para sa asawa (ng amo ko) at magkakape raw siya ng tea�hinila niya ang buhok ko at inilublob sa mainit na tubig."

In her anguish, Diadel earlier recounted to media while in Jordan her employers' threat: "Kahit buong Pilipinas ang tumulong sa'yo, hindi ka makakauwi ng Pilipinas. (Even if the entire Philippines helps you, you will never be able to go home.)

But on account of Villar's intervention, the OFW was finally released from prison and allowed to come home.

In an earlier television investigative report, the then underaged OFW narrated while in Jordan how her employer pushed her on the stairs and her head onto hot water. For fear of being raped as she was asked to massage her naked employer, she jumped from the third floor of the building and sustained injuries.

During his visit to Jordan last September, Villar asked the Philippine Embassy to expedite the repatriation of Diadel. Her employer decided to drop the case against the OFW after he was told and convinced that Diadel's case was "very important to the Philippine Senate President," whose visit related to his repatriation efforts was likewise cited by the Jordanian press.

On Sept. 22, Villar arrived in Manila with 23 distressed OFWs from Jordan whom he fetched and whose return tickets he sponsored. Most of the workers were sick, one with a baby, and another a senior citizen.

Villar has initiated the repatriation of many distressed OFWs not only from Jordan but also from Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, and other Middle East Countries. He has also given livelihood assistance to the 23 OFWs who arrived recently from Trinidad and Tobago and many other indigent migrant workers who have come home and asked his help. The said efforts are part of the Senate President's continuing program for the protection and welfare of OFWs which he started three decades ago while in the private sector.

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