Maria Victoria Cavanes and her fellow OFW Maricel Busbos, who are working as domestic helpers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, are being routinely physically abused by their employers. Their families are desperately appealing for their rescue.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — Unlike the warm notes and happy lyrics that comfort a baby to sleep, the lullabies being sung by overseas Filipino worker Maria Victoria Cavanes, 40, are songs of despair and a cry for help. Through the songs that she sings, she describes her sufferings at the hands of her employer who has been beating her up for more than two years now.
Bulatlat.com learned that Cavanes would sing the lullabies while doing her chores as a domestic helper in a Riyadh home, but replacing the words with accounts of her ordeal.
A fellow helper in the same home, she once sang, was seared with a flat iron because she allegedly stole tomatoes.
Before going to sleep one night, Cavanes crooned, she and her compatriot were both slapped by their employer and their heads banged against the wall so the two would not forget to wake up early the following morning.
Somebody relayed all this to Cavanes’s husband, Boy Santos, who is now doing everything he can to get her out of Riyadh.
Cavanes had worked as a sales lady in a shopping mall in Marikina City but her income and that of her husband’s was barely enough to make both ends meet. This forced her to work abroad. She went to Dubai in 2007 but returned to Manila only after three months because she said she was homesick.
But life in the Philippines was simply difficult so Cavanes mustered the courage to work abroad again. This time, she went to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to work as a domestic helper. She left the country on June 2, 2008, with her friend Maricel Busbos.
Abused
Santos told Bulatlat.com in an interview that when his wife arrived at her employer’s house on June 3, 2008, Cavanes managed to send him a text message describing how her employer literally kicked out the domestic helper they replaced.
It was, as it turned out, a portent of things to come.
In the days since she arrive, Cavanes would send Santos text messages saying that they were being made to eat either leftovers or spoiled food, sometimes none at all. Then, on June 12, or barely a week after arriving in Riyadh, Busbos, who could no longer take the abuse, called up their agency and asked if they could leave their employer. The call, Santos said, made the employer’s wife even more angry at the two helpers.
The following day, Cavanes frantically sent a text message that read, “Daddy, our employer is about to confiscate our cellphones. Ask for help. They might kill us. (Our male employer) spat on Maricel’s face and (his wife) hit my back.”
“That was a Friday,” Santos narratd, recalling the day he received his wife’s text message. “Because the first thing that I did the following Monday was to go to Senator Manny (Villar)’s office and ask for assistance.”
Villar prides himself on being the champion of OFWs. His staff found it hard to believe that such thing could happen to somebody in a matter of two weeks. “Thankfully, they still gave me a referral letter,” Santos said. “But I am not very sure not if it was worthy anything.”
Santos went to various government agencies that could help him locate and rescue his wife, who, based from the last text message he received, was in danger. But, just like what other family members and relatives of OFWs in distress go through, he was told to come back some other time and that they would be the one to call him if there were updates.
One of the reasons, Santos said, that the government agencies could not help him is the fact that he does not know the exact address of his wife’s employer. “But that is supposed to be their job.”
Out of despair, Santos took the chance to air his wife’s situation over a national radio program. Through the help of a friend, he also posted their concerns and contact information on various websites. But despite all his efforts, his wife remains at her employer’s house.
After eight months, Santos received a “missed call” from an international number. He called back and was surprised and relieved to hear his wife’s voice. Unfortunately, though, they had to speak in English as Cavanes’s employer was listening in to their call.
“I think that it was even switched to loudspeaker mode,” he said. “Each time I spoke in Tagalog, I could hear her employer shout, ‘English! English!’”
“I asked how she was and she told me that she was okay,” he said. From then on, they were able to talk to each other, strictly in English, at least once a month, or every other month. Cavanes’s employer, however, kept on changing her cellphone number.
Informant
One day, Santos received this text message:
“I was wondering if someone from the agency could talk to her employer because it seems that they have no plans to let them go. They are given very little food, and it is spoiled most of the time. They are being spat on, slapped and their heads banged against the wall. She is so thin she looked like she was only 15 years old.”
Santos said he could not confirm this information provided by his informat because every time they talked on the phone, the employer would listen in. “All we could ask each other was how we are doing,” he said. “Despite what she is going through, she still manages to laugh.”
The text messages from the informant kept coming and each time, Santos could not help but be angry. “If only she was rescued right away,” Santos said. “I have to think of other means to help her. If only I was Superman I would fly to Riyadh right away.”
The situation went on until Cavanes’s and Busbos’s contract expired in June 2010. But their employer did not allow them to leave. Worse, they were never given a single cent for their services for two years.
Sometime in September, when Santos and Cavanes were able to talk again, Santos was able to speak with her employer and asked when his wife could go home. The employer replied that she would only allow Cavanes to go home if she could find a replacement.
“But she should have looked for a replacement before the contract expired. I think it means that they just do not want to let her go,” Santos said, adding that one of his fears is that his wife might even be sent to jail because her iqama, or her residence permit, has already expired.
Seeking Help
As if to pacify the family’s desire that Cavanes be sent home, the employer asked Santos to open a bank account where she could remit his wife’s salary. In October, Santos received P34,000 ($772) and two deposits amounting to P22,000 ($500) for November and December.
But Santos wanted Cavanes home. Besides, he said, the money that was sent for three consecutive months was not enough compensation for what his wife is going through and the services she did for two years and eight months. In January, the employer stopped remitting Cavanes’s salary.
“The last agency we approached for help is Migrante International,” Santos said, adding that it was her daughter Ernest Marie, 17, who was able to get in touch with the migrant group. Since then, Migrante’s case officers have been assisting Ernest in going from one government office to another. Santos, meanwhile, could only do so much because of his polio.
On February 1, 2011, a man phoned Santos to say that he had news about his wife. Because of his excitement, Santos forgot to ask the name of the person who called. He assumed right away that it was someone from the Philippine embassy in Riyadh. The man assured him that his wife was safe and that he is heading to the house of Cavanes’s employer to talk to them. He also asked if the Santos family had approached any government office, such as the Philippine embassy in Riyadh or any OFW groups.
The following day, Santos received another “missed call” from Cavanes. He called the number right away and was surprised to hear his wife speaking in Tagalog. The employer, however, was still listening in to their conversation.
He told his wife about the phone call he received a day before but she said it was probably from their agency, trying to know what their next moves would be. He also spoke with the employer who said that they would no longer remit his wife’s salary and that they need to send a replacement for her before they would let go of Cavanes. “What are we, an employment agency?” Santos thought to himself at that time.
Cavanes’ recruitment agency, Hannan International Manpower Services, had no placement orders from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency at the time they deployed Cavanes and Busbos. To be able to continue deploying workers, Hannan asked other agencies to “share” their placement orders. They also asked other agencies to process the application for POEA’s approval.
In Cavanes’s case, Marvic Overseas Placement processed her application. But now that she is in trouble, Marvic could not do anything as its license had been canceled by POEA as of September 30, 2010. Hannan, on the other hand, has already committed to the family of Cavanes that they would take part in rescuing her but Migrante International chairman Garry Martinez said that “no concrete action has been done.”
It seems, according to Martinez, that the government agencies and Hannan are still arguing who among them should shoulders the responsibility to rescue Cavanes. “The government should act quickly on this matter and resolve the issue with the agency after Cavanes have been rescued,” Martinez told Bulatlat.com.
Martinez said the government has been boasting that it can rescue an OFW in distress within 24 hours. “But it has already been two years” in the case of Cavanes.
Martinez said he is “proud of the patience that the Santos family has shown. The patience has reached a point where Cavanes had to resort to creative means just to send out her message to her family back home.”
Uncertain Fate
The fate of Cavanes and Busbos remains uncertain as of press time. Ernest, one of Cavanes’s children, told Bulatlat.com that even if the embassy would send someone to check on her mother’s welfare, it is likely that Cavanes and Busbos would deny the maltreatment that they were going through. “Of course, they would be threatened by their employer on order to lie,” he said. What they really need, Ernest said, is to be rescued from that house.
Santos, on the other hand, said that he believes what his informant has been telling them. He said that a certain person would never risk her or his life if she or he is not telling the truth. He added that they would no longer file any charges against anyone, including the agency and his wife’s employer, because what is important to their family right now is for Cavanes to be repatriated and be compensated for the two years that she has spent in Riyadh.
Santos urged the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Overseas Workers Welfare Adminstration and all other government agencies concerned to quickly act on his wife’s case before it is too late. “I call on President Noynoy Aquino to check what these government agencies are doing to serve who the government calls as ‘unsung heroes’. ” 
February 27th, 2011 at 10:49 pm
Tha Philippine government is duty bound to protect the welfare of Philippine citizens wherever they may be. The most important course of action is to assert the right of Philippine citizens against violence and abuse from their foreign employers and repatriate migrant workers who cry out for help once proper documentations and legal procedures are done.
The Philippine government has to take these matters seriously and act accordingly based on its international and national interest and obligations.
February 28th, 2011 at 1:27 am
Nakakagalit ang ganitong pangyayari sa kababayan natin ang tanging hiling ko lang sana sa ating gobyerno na sana lahat na OFW ay bigyan ng protection at hwag hayaan na mangyari sa lahat na mga OFW ang ganitong situation.
Gusto ko lang ipaalala sa ating gobyerno na nagbabayad po kami ng bayarin bago kami makaalis ng bansa.At saan ang pondo ng OFW para itulong sa mga naaabuso na mga OFW nakaka-init ng ulo at hwag kayo puro pa-pogi hindi kayo nakakatawa.Nakakagalit kayo.
March 1st, 2011 at 1:02 pm
It is so sad that nothing has changed with the system in our government..we OFW’s are the backbone of our country and where are the agencies who are suppose to protect us? remember every OFW pays almost $200 at POEA and other fees before departing the country. May I suggest that those placement agencies takes responsibility of the people they deploy abroad not just taking placement fees and never even bothered to monitor the OFW..this is really insane..pwede ba wag na lang kasakiman sa pera ang nasa utak nyo..maawa naman kayo sa mga Pinoy. kayo mismong mga Pilipino ang nagpapahamak sa kapwa Pinoy nyo..ang tawag don MORON..sorry but that’s how i look at it. I had been living abroad for a long time but i think Saudi Arabia is a very unsafe place for Pinoys especially for domestic helpers…WAKE UP.. there are better place than that hell.