Sarah Balabagan: Moving on from darkness to light

ALMOST two decades after she killed her Arab employer and got severely punished for it, Sarah Balabagan has moved on and has been moving in and out of the country to tell her sad tale to inspire overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who, in one way or another, have gone through the same ordeal.

Now 32, Balabagan is no longer the picture of a frail and young Muslim woman whose future was made bleak by abusive men who took advantage of her youth and innocence. Besides having embraced the Christian faith, Balabagan has become what she thought she could not be at first- an astute, highly confident and well-loved single mother to three beautiful children.

“I am a survivor. People took advantage of me and I nearly ended my own life following the tragedies that I had to endure. However, through counseling and with a little help from friends, I was able to move on until I fell in love with the Lord,” she told The Manila Times in an exclusive no holds barred interview on Friday, two days after she arrived from Church work in the United States.

Still sporting her long black shiny hair, Balabagan showed up promptly at the agreed venue for the interview at a Quezon City (Metro Manila) restaurant. Clad in black blazer, floral tops and denim pants, she greeted The Times staff cheerfully. She was full of life.

“I learned a lot from my mistakes and from my experiences in the past. What I am now is the product of what I had been. I dedicate my life these days in spreading the Good News and in helping other OFWs. By the grace of God, nagmature ako [I matured],” she said.

Balabagan now co-anchors a weekly radio program on OFW concerns.

Obscurity

After a brief stint in the music industry, Balabagan suddenly left the limelight in early 2000. From a Muslim community in Sultan Kudarat in Mindanao, she left her 13 siblings and parents to work as domestic helper in the town of Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Sarah, who was then 14, lied about her real age so she could get work.

On July 19, 1994, Balabagan stabbed to death 34 times her 85-year-old employer Almas Mohammed Al-Baloushi, alleging he tried to rape her. Balabagan attended household work not only for her elderly employer who was a widower or a divorcee, but also for his four sons. Just a month and a half before the incident, Sarah went to the agency that had brought her to Emirate to complain about her employer’s abuses and sexual advances but was ignored.

Balabagan’s professional as well as personal life was as dark as night. She became a single parent after a brief relationship with a broadcast journalist who sired her a girl, Arrah, now 13. In August 2003 she married Russell Vergara. She bore him two kids, Russell, Jr. and Saira Lyn.

Balabagan took up a mass communication course in Manila but had to quit the course when she got pregnant in 1998 at age 17. Success to her was meaningless. She wished she had died in the Emirates.

She said that she sought the help of a psychiatrist through the prodding of her fellow recording artist Dulce Amor. Balabagan also submitted herself to counseling from a pastor who told her that the 100 lashes she got on her back will never compare to the punishment Jesus received on the cross. Balabagan renounced her Islam faith and converted to Christianity in 2003.

Besides her being a broadcaster in her own right, Balabagan is engaged in her singing and hosting careers, making her songs and stories as weapons against OFW abuses.

Contrary to fears raised by some sectors, Sarah Balabagan has a more positive outlook on the decision of Saudi Arabia to tap local manpower over foreigners.

“Personally, I am happy. Because this would mean that many abused OFWs [overseas Filipino workers], especially domestic helpers, will be reduced. I am sad that they’re there mainly because they wanted their families here to have a good life. I believed in that too when I was young,” she said.

But according to Balabagan, OFWs are the least to bear the brunt of Saudization because the worst thing that could happen to Filipinos there is that their salaries would be reduced.

“We are better workers than others. We speak English and communicate better. Saudis like that,” she added, noting that other migrant workers from countries such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India are most vulnerable to the new policy.

“But when that [Saudization] happens, it will be a challenge to the government. How they could provide jobs to those who would be affected,” Balabagan stressed.

Unprepared

When war broke out in a number of Arab states, Balabagan said that the Overseas Workers Welfare and Administration (OWWA) was not prepared. According to her, the government has been shortchanging OFWs in the sense that the economy was being fueled by the immense remittances from Filipinos abroad and the government has not been able to repay such “kindness.”

“They suffered. There was no preparation when there was war. It is sad that without a padrino [backer], they could not be helped. OFWs are called Bagong Bayani [new heroes] and for what? The government has been paying lip service to our overseas workers,” she added.

Balabagan dared President Benigno Aquino 3rd to put the OFWs’ interests ahead of others because a vast majority of Filipino families rely on foreign remittances.

When asked what her message to the President was, she curtly replied, “As your ‘boss,’ we dare you [to do more].”

President Aquino at the outset of his presidency said that he was beholden only to all Filipinos, his “boss.”

“The government and the economy benefit from OFW remittances, from both documented and undocumented ones. But those who are said to be ‘illegally’ working abroad are readily ignored, despite their share. What I want is for the government to help them too,” Balabagan said.

Most cases of abuse, according to her, involved undocumented Filipino workers.

Some suffer from abusive employers while others were forced to resort to committing crimes to make ends meet.

Eventually, they are caught, jailed and punished.

“I do not condone them [illegal workers] because in the first place, whatever happens to them, they are on the losing side. Just like what happened to me. I was abused, threatened, hurt and jailed for defending my life and chastity,” she said.

Envoy

Balabagan said that her story was just among many, most of which remained untold or will never be known. It is for this reason that she wanted to go back to where she began and to revisit her past so that she could help others survive.

For Balabagan, counseling for victims of abuse should be seriously instituted. It is in this aspect that she could be of help since she knows “what is going on inside their heads.”

“There are a lot of cases of abuse that we failed to take notice of for lack of media attention. There were and still are a number of stories like mine but were not sensationalized. It is my mission to find out everything about these untold stories but I am afraid that authorities abroad would just put me behind bars for trying to help our kababayans [countrymen],” she said.

If given the chance, Balabagan added, she would accept any position in government that would work for the protection of OFWs.

An envoy of sorts, she said of herself, would make her “immune” from harassments by foreign authorities.

In pursuit of her goal, Bala­bagan has put up the Angat Bagong Bayani Angat! (ABBA) Foundation, which gives timely counseling and orientation to OFWs prior to their deployment to their country of destination.

“I welcome Vice President Jejomar Binay’s efforts in helping out our OFWs. However, they need someone they can better relate with,” she added.

Binay is concurrent presidential adviser on OFW affairs.

When asked if she considers entering politics to pursue her goals, Balabagan replied by citing a verse in the Bible that emphasizes on her being a “new creation” and asked, “Why not?”

Written by : JING VILLAMENTE CORRESPONDENT