“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’. ” 
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This is how you deal with these animals in Saudi Arabia:
You call them on their phone, and you say to them,
“if you do not release my wife this week, and put her on a plane back to the Philippines, and pay all that you owe for her 2 years of work, I will hire someone in Saudi Arabia to kill you. And then he will kill your wife. I will not say this again. And if she is beaten again after this call, I will see to it that you are beaten 5 times as bad. This is your only chance. Goodbye.”
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You must say this very calmly, and very strongly. If you can not say this strongly, then you should find a friend who can. Even better if it is someone who knows a little Arabic and can curse them in Arabic.
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Fear and beatings and threats are the language they understand in that miserable country. If you want to save your wife, you must be willing to use the same weapons they do, against them.
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I wish you luck in whatever path you choose. May God protect you and your wife.
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.
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.
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.