Press Release
July 23, 2009

DURING VISIT TO OFW IN HIS TAYTAY HOME
Villar: Where's medical help for OFW who awoke from coma?

SEN. Manny Villar asked the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to expeditiously facilitate the needed physical rehabilitation of a repatriated overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who survived a car accident in Jeddah to enable him to resume normal life.

The Nacionalista Party president, who visited 25-year-old OFW Ruben de Leon in his home in Kapalaran, Taytay, Rizal, and gave him a medical bed, stressed that the OFW must also receive all due benefits.

De Leon was hit by a car driven by a 16-year-old Saudi national in September 2008, causing his eight-month confinement at Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital where he lapsed into coma and eventually recovered. He sustained multiple traumatic injuries: brain hematoma, fractured right clavicle and ribs, lung contusion, upper liver tear, and ruptured spleen which had to be removed.

Earlier, De Leon's mother Marissa wrote Villar to alleviate her son's condition, "Humihingi po ako ng tulong na magkaroon siya ng higaang pwedeng maitaas ang kanyang likod, kasi po di pa po siya makabangon at makalakad, may benda pa po siya sa kanyang mga binti, 'di ko po siya kayang ibaba at itaas (I ask your help for a medical bed because he still can't get up and walk, his legs are cast, and I can't move him)."

On July 8, Villar sent a medical team to the OFW who reported that the latter was not getting the needed regular physical therapy to be able to walk. The team also found the patient with open wounds which were cleaned, his legs painful after eight months of immobility, and a hole on his neck where a tracheostomy tube was inserted.

De Leon, whose condition was reported to Villar by Migrante International, was repatriated to Manila on June 22 from Saudi Arabia via Saudia Airlines flight SV 0860, accompanied by a doctor and therapist.

At the airport, De Leon was fetched by his parents Ruben Sr. and Marissa, Migrante, OWWA, and the Office of Sen. Manny Villar, who brought him to the Philippine General Hospital in Manila for checkup.

The OFW had worked as a helper for a Saudi employer since 2006. He was re-hired after completing his two-year employment contract in July 2008.

The Philippine Consulate General was informed that De Leon will receive insurance benefits from Saudi Arabia's General Organization Social Insurance or GOSI and monetary claims from his employer which will be used to cover his physiotherapy expenses in the Philippines, which are yet to be received by the OFW.

Harsh conditions faced by OFWs has prompted Villar to actively press for the application of the "no-fault insurance system" for OFWs, a form of indemnity plan in which anyone injured in an accident or misfortune receives direct payment from the company that has insured them, eliminating the need for victims to establish another's liability or fault through a civil case.

Villar has filed Senate Bill 3040 or the "Overseas Contract Workers Insurance Act" which seeks compulsory insurance for all OFWs in addition to benefits being provided by OWWA.

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