NBI to probe Demafelis’ recruiters

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte pays his last respects to the late Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Joanna Demafelis as the President visited the wake at the late OFW’s residence residence in Barangay Anoring, Iloilo on February 22, 2018. Demafelis’ body was found in a freezer at an abandoned apartment in Kuwait. Autopsy reports suggest that she allegedly died due to severe beating at the hands of her employer. RICHARD MADELO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate the recruitment agency that deployed the slain overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Joanna Demafelis in Kuwait.

Aguirre issued the Department Order (DO) 102 on Monday, directing the NBI to look into the local recruitment agency identified as Our Lady of Mt. Armel Global E-Human Resources Inc. over the grisly death of Demafelis.

“The NBI, through Director Dante A. Gierran Jr. is hereby directed and granted authority to conduct investigation and case build-up on the possible liabilities of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Global E-Human Resources Inc., in relation to the death of OFW Joanna Demafelis and if evidence so warrants, to file appropriate charges thereon,” the directive read.

Aguirre also ordered Gierran to “submit a report to the Office of the Secretary of Justice on its current activities related to the implementation of this Order.”

The order came after President Rodrigo Duterte asked the NBI to summon Demafelis’ local recruiters and bring justice to the slain OFW’s family.

The body of Demafelis, 29, was found inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment in the Gulf state and believed to have been there for over a year.

According to the autopsy report, the Filipina worker died due to the severe beating she allegedly obtained in the hands of her employer. Her body bore torture wounds such as bruises and a broken hipbone.

The suspects in the murder of Demafelis, Lebanese national Nader Essam Assaf and his Syrian wife Mona, were nabbed separately in Lebanon and Syria, respectively.

The remains of the OFW was brought back to the country on February 16, Friday.

President Rodrigo Duterte on February 22 flew to Iloilo to pay his last respects and condoled the bereaved family. Duterte promised the OFW’s family financial assistance worth P500,000 and vowed to reconstruct their house which was knocked down by super-typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

Aside from the financial aid, Duterte also pledged to give a scholarship to Demafelis’ sibling.

The Filipina worker’s case was among those several deaths and rampant cases of abuses in Kuwait which prompted the President to declare a total ban on the deployment of OFWs in the Gulf state.

Speaking in front of Filipino-Chinese businessmen at the Manila Hotel on February 20, Duterte said that the OFW deployment ban will extend to other countries that treat Filipino workers unjustly.

“The ban will continue and it will extend to other countries. Mahirapan sila, well, humihingi na ako ng tawad sa inyo. Wala akong kaplano na ipadala kayo [OFWs] doon tapos babuyin kayo. Hindi ko style ‘yan (It would be hard for them, well, I’m asking for their forgiveness. I do not have plans deploying you to other states, and thereafter treat you unfairly. That is not my style),” he stressed.