Filipina forced to ingest bleach now in a better condition: DFA

MALTREATED OFW. Consul General to Jeddah Edgar Badajos visits overseas Filipino worker Agnes Mancilla in the hospital. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mancilla is now in a better condition after she was allegedly forced to ingest household bleach by her employer in Saudi Arabia. (Photo courtesy of DFA)

MANILA — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Tuesday said Agnes Mancilla, the Filipina allegedly forced to ingest household bleach by her employer in Saudi Arabia, is now in a better condition.

In a meeting with Consul General to Jeddah Edgar Badajos, Mancilla narrated her harrowing experience under the hands of her employer, who, aside from the latest cruelty against her, starved her for more than a month with only coffee for food.

Agnes arrived in Saudi Arabia in 2016 as a household service worker for the same employer. According to the agency, they were initially based in Jeddah but transferred in 2017 to Jizan where the maltreatment allegedly started.

Mancilla told Badajos her female employer forced her to drink household bleach for failing to make tea properly. Aside from this, she has not been fed anything except coffee for almost 40 days and was made to work from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m.

DFA-Office of Public Diplomacy Assistant Secretary Elmer Cato, who was directing information from Jeddah, said Mancilla is also bearing bite marks at her back. “Kinakagat daw siya palagi ng amo niyang babae tuwing nagkakamali siya,” he told reporters.

For more than two years, the Filipina worker was not able to contact her family in the Philippines after her employers confiscated her phone.

Cato said Badajos would be seeing authorities in Jizan who are handling Mancilla’s case today, Tuesday, to ensure that proper charges would be filed against her employer. While now in an improved condition, Badajos did not say how many more days Mancilla would be staying at the hospital.

Meanwhile, when asked if the Duterte administration will call for better working conditions for household service workers in the Gulf State. Cato said there are existing bilateral mechanisms in addressing cases of abuses where there are overseas Filipino workers.

“In the case of Agnes, we are working closely with authorities in Saudi Arabia in making sure her employer is held accountable,” he said.