KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 20 Feb) – An overseas Filipino worker from Maguindanao who was reported missing last month was found in a hospital in Kuwait where she was confined for coma, a relative said.
The Filipina was identified as Norisa Manambit, 36, of Barangay Kauran, Ampatuan town in Maguindanao.
Lady Mae Besa, in an interview over radio station dxND here, said she only learned of her aunt’s situation through her friends on Facebook.
Besa said a Filipina nurse posted about her aunt’s condition on Facebook so relatives may know about it.
She said her aunt has been missing since January this year. She recalled that their last communication with her was in the last quarter of 2017.
She said her aunt left åthe Philippines in 2017 to work as a domestic helper in Daman in Saudi Arabia, and seeing her in a coma in a Kuwaiti hospital surprised them so much.
“How can that be? We were so sure she went to Daman, Saudi Arabia. How did she arrive in Kuwait?” she asked.
Besa learned that sometime in January this year Manambit had a heated altercation with her employer after she was caught using a mobile phone.
The altercation allegedly resulted to a fight that led her employer to call for police and had her locked inside a prison cell in Daman.
“But when friends visited my aunt in Daman Prison, they did not find her there,”Besa said.
She said they then sought help from Manambit’s agency in the Philippines.
She alleged that an employee at the agency told them not to report the incident to media and the government while they were making a follow-up on her case.
“But weeks had passed and we were not given yet the information that we need to appease us. The agency has promised to update us of my aunt’s case. But until now, they would only give us false promises,” she said.
Manambit, a documented OFW, has gone twice to Saudi Arabia to work as house help before she was reported missing in January.
Besa expressed concern over Manambit’s situation after news came out that Joanna Demafiles, an OFW, was found dead inside a freezer in Kuwait with signs of physical abuse.
She added nobody from the agency would tell them about the true state of her aunt’s health.
“We’re praying she’s OK. But we’re in a limbo that is why we’re so worried,” she said. (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)