Filipina who won rape case vs. cop in Kuwait arrives home

MANILA – A Filipina domestic worker who won a rape and frustrated murder case in 2014 against a Kuwaiti traffic police officer has finally returned to the Philippines, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced Wednesday.

Marissa, not her real name, was among the repatriates who departed Kuwait last Nov. 29.

“Her return to the Philippines is a monumental event and a win for the country,” DFA Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola said Wednesday.

In the early morning of October 1, 2012, Marissa was raped, stabbed multiple times, and left to die in South Surra Area by Kuwaiti police officer Lance Corporal Yahiya Mohamad Ahmad Abdullah. She was brought to the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital after a good Samaritan took notice of her crawling on the roadside to seek help.

In June 2014, the Kuwaiti Court of First Instance found the Kuwaiti traffic officer guilty of rape and frustrated murder charges and sentenced him to death by hanging.

However, the court ruling was later commuted to a life sentence. The Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior, the employer of the Kuwaiti traffic officer, later paid the civil compensation for Marissa upon order of the court.

Upon recovery, she was sheltered at the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Resource Center where she was assisted by the Philippine Embassy in her legal battle against her attacker through the DFA’s Legal Assistance Fund.

She was represented in her case by Kuwaiti lawyer Sheikha Fauzia Salem.

Arriola said the justice Marissa achieved is “an example of the government’s continuous efforts and commitment in protecting and promoting the rights of our distressed overseas Filipinos anywhere in the world”.

In a courtesy call before Marissa’s departure last month, Philippine Ambassador-designate to Kuwait Noordin Pendosin Lomondot extended his best wishes to the Filipina as she restarts her life in the Philippines.

“The Embassy is glad that Marissa will finally close this difficult and painful chapter of her life, and will embrace her 14-year-old son once again after years of working overseas,” he said.

“I pray that with her second life, Marissa’s story and bravery will continue to serve as an inspiration to others in fighting for what is right and just,” Lomondot said.

Marissa is one of the 39,957 overseas Filipinos brought home by the DFA this November as it closed its ninth consecutive month of repatriation efforts.