MANILA: The murder of a Filipina worker found in a desert in Kuwait has sent shockwaves across the Philippines, where a two-week surveillance will begin after she returns to the country on Friday.
Julebi Ranara, 35, was one of more than 268,000 overseas Filipino workers living in Kuwait – mostly women employed as domestic helpers.
His charred remains were discovered in a desert on Sunday. Kuwaiti media reported that she was pregnant and had been subjected to blunt-force trauma. The 17-year-old son of his employer has been arrested by Kuwaiti police on charges of murder.
Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Opal declined to comment on the cause of Ranara’s death until the National Bureau of Investigation had performed an autopsy.
“There are many speculations regarding the cause of death and the motive behind it. The family has requested for the autopsy,” she said at the media briefing on Friday.
“The important thing is that the police acted quickly. The primary suspect is in the custody of Kuwaiti police, and we are closely monitoring the case.”
A vigil for Ranara’s body has begun after it was brought back on Friday evening.
“We expect his awakening to begin by Sunday,” Opel told reporters.
“According to the husbands, they want the two weeks set aside to allow time for relatives and friends who are in the province to pay their respects.”
The news of his death was “terrible” for former OFWs like Maria Nida Dijon.
“What they did to her is inhuman. She went to Kuwait to work, carrying every hope of a better life in her suitcase, only to meet a horrible death,” she told Arab News.
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In 2018 and 2020, the Philippines banned the deployment of workers to Kuwait following murder cases.
“Based on my own experience, protection for OFWs, especially when it comes to our rights, is hardly felt by migrant workers. There is no guarantee that they will get justice when they are abused.”
Dijon, who used to work in the United Arab Emirates, did not think that the Ranara case would deter Philippine workers from seeking employment abroad, where they can earn more than at home.
“There have been many cases of abuse, but our countrymen still want to try (to work abroad), especially women, mostly mothers,” she said.
“They feel they can help the family more if they work outside.”
While the migrant labor secretary said Philippine officials would work with Kuwait to introduce better screening and recognition mechanisms for employers, Rick Hernandez, a local administrative worker in Manila, was now sure he could send his family members abroad to work as domestic workers. Will stop working as assistants.
“So many Filipinos, especially our women, are willing to brave harsh climates and abusive employers in order to provide for their loved ones,” she added.
“As a father and husband, I would rather starve here than send my daughter or wife to a distant land as servants.”
Kuwait’s ambassador to the Philippines, Musaed Saleh Al-Thawaikh, said on Friday that Kuwaiti society was also “shocked and saddened” by the incident.
In a letter addressed to Opel, he wrote, “Our justice system will not lose sight in ensuring justice for Mrs. Ranara.”
“We assure you that such an incident is an isolated case.”
Ranara’s killing, however, was not the first such incident in Kuwait that roiled the Philippines, which in 2018 banned the deployment of a staffer to the Gulf country following the murder of Philippine domestic help Joanna Daniela Demafelis, whose body was found in a Was found in the freezer. Abandoned Apartment.
The ban was partially lifted in the same year, when both countries signed a protection agreement for workers.
In May 2019, Filipina maid Constasia Lago Dayag was murdered in Kuwait, and a few months later, another, Jeanleen Villavende, was bludgeoned to death by her employer.
The Philippines again imposed a worker deployment ban in January 2020, which was lifted when Kuwaiti authorities accused Villawende’s employer of murder and sentenced him to death.