“There was clearly no active intervention or urgent action from the Philippine embassies to rescue them despite their dangerous circumstances.”
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Arnulfo Restor could not bear tell his daughter, the youngest among his four children, about the bitter fate of her mother, Marilyn. Marilyn’s body was found in a morgue, a year after she was abducted by suspected men of a princess belonging to Saudi Arabia’s royal family.
“I have yet to tell my eight-year-old daughter on what happened to her mother. She keeps on waiting for her to return. I cannot help but cry,” Arnulfo told Bulatlat.com in an interview via Facebook.
Arnulfo lives with his daughter in Riyadh, where he and Marilyn are employed by the same household.
On July 13, 2014, while taking out the garbage outside their employer’s house, Marilyn was taken by armed men, believed to be hired by a certain Princess Jada. Arnulfo said earlier that day, Princess Jada, a relative of their employer, stormed the house and accused them of aiding one of her helpers escape. He said the men may have mistaken his wife for another domestic helper, still Marilyn was unable to return to her employer and to her family.
On July 25, 2014, they visited Princess Jada’s home but the princess’s husband, a ranking military official, reportedly fired gunshots at them.
Their employer immediately reported the abduction to the police, who advised them to report the incident to the Philippine embassy in Riyadh. Arnulfo said they followed the advice but their call for help fell on deaf ears.
On June 17, their employer received a call from a hospital that his wife’s remains have been at the morgue for the past 42 days. Arnulfo then called Philippine embassy officials who told him that Marilyn was “pushed” and “fell” from a rooftop.
It was the news they have long dreaded would come.
“We fought hard for a year. And this still happened,” Arnulfo said.
Asking for help
Not a day passed when Arnulfo asked for help from the Philippine embassy. Back in the country, their relatives, too, asked help from the Department of Foreign Affairs. Their children in General Santos City also wrote letters to various government agencies but to no avail.
Back in August 2014, Marilyn’s sister Lani went to the DFA’s main office to file a request for assistance but after several months, there was still no clear response.
Arnulfo, on the other hand, demanded documents from the Philippine embassy and learned that apart from Marilyn, there were nine other overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have experienced grave abuse and maltreatment from Princess Jada and her husband. Migrante International said four of them were already repatriated and have filed complaints before concerned government agencies.
The Philippine embassy wrote to the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sept. 16, 2014 to create a committee that would conduct an investigation and direct the police to secure Marilyn and two other Filipino domestic helpers Dorothy Blancaflor and Levine Batague.
Both Blancaflor and Batague remain missing as of this writing. Blancaflor’s family said they have received unconfirmed reports that Dorothy might be in a mental facility in Saudi Arabia.
Apart from this, the Restor family did not receive any significant updates on Marilyn’s case.
The family then came to Migrante International in March this year. On March 24, the migrant rights activists accompanied Marilyn’s sister Lani to a dialogue with DFA officials, who agreed to provide the family with a written report.
In a statement, Migrante International said the letter the family received merely stated that the embassy was already coordinating and would follow up the case with Saudi authorities.
In the height of the campaign to save Filipina Mary Jane Veloso, Lani was among those who attested to government neglect on cases of OFWs in distress in a protest action in front of DFA office in Pasay City.
“It has been a year since they sought government’s help only to learn that she had died. The Philippine embassy knew about it and did not even have the courtesy to inform them officially. If Arnulfo had not contacted the Philippine embassy to confirm the call his employer received, they would still be in the dark right now,” Sol Pillas, Migrante International secretary-general, said.
Pursuing their dreams
Spouses Arnulfo and Marilyn dreamed of owning a catering business someday.
“She is a good mother to our four children. She wanted us to have a better life in the province and this is why we tried our luck in Saudi Arabia. We wanted our children to have a good life, send them to school, have a home of our own and to have our own business. That was our only dream,” Arnulfo said.
They used to own a small eatery in a terminal in General Santos City, where they earned roughly $5 to $7 a day. At the time, Arnulfo said they only had three children who were still in elementary. Though income from the eatery sufficed for their needs, he said it would not be enough to send their children to college.
Marilyn left the country in 2006 to work as a domestic helper. Arnulfo followed a year later and was hired to do the household’s maintenance job. Both were hired by the same family, who also belong to Saudi Arabia’s royal family.
Another mysterious death
When asked to describe his wife’s remains, Arnulfo said there were signs that she was subjected to torture. Marilyn’s hair was also shaved.
Pillas said Marilyn is another case of an OFW’s death under mysterious circumstances during President Aquino’s term. Recent cases include Terril Atienza, Romilyn Ibanez and Rochelle Masubay. Pillas said they first reported abuse and maltreatment from their employers, before they turned up dead.
“There was clearly no active intervention or urgent action from the Philippine embassies to rescue them despite their dangerous circumstances. In Marilyn’s case, the Philippine embassy’s neglect is apparent,” Pillas said.
“This is blood on their hands. The mere fact that nine others had existing complaints against Princess Jada and her husband should have been a ‘red flag’, an alert for the Philippine Embassy to act with haste before it is too late. Unfortunately and sadly, for Marilyn, it was not,” Pillas said.
As of this writing, the Restor family has yet to receive police, forensic and medical reports on her death. They, too, have yet to secure Marilyn’s death certificate and other pertinent information on her “mysterious fall,” according to Migrante International.
No date has been set on when her remains would be repatriated.
Arnulfo said, “We really hope justice would be served for Marilyn. It was almost a year of waiting and asking for help only to learn that she died helplessly.” 
