Ms. Winda Lagumbay Petilla is a proactive Filipino-Canadian community advocate of Overseas-Filipino issues. She has been virtually a one-woman chronicler of Overseas-Filipino workers’ (OFWs’) causes and concerns. She regularly posts under the screen name A1.Moonglow@shaw.ca news briefs and updates about OFW issues. She also writes to Filipino diplomats to make reports or undertake follow ups. Ms. Winda is the Filipino-Canadian version of Tonette (Ka Tonyang) Binsol (now deceased) who used to help the OFW community from Japan. (Editor’s Notes: To read tributes to Ka Tonyang, please go to this link http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/317/51/.)

Ms. Winda’s updates and infrequent commentaries usually make the day for many OFWs subscribed to e-forums and e-listserves in which she makes her postings. All that we can say to Ms. Winda is "More power and kudos for everything that you do."

Here are the samples of Ms. Moonglow’s work and updates (just for the first 10 days of September 2007):

To: pcgdxb@pcgdubai.ae; dubaipc@dfa.gov.ph
Cc: OFW-GRIEVANCE@yahoogroups.com; OFW-DUBAI@yahoogroups.com; elagda-ofw@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 5:51 pm
Subject: [OFW-Dubai] 2 FILIPINAS IN DUBAI RAPED

CONSULATE GENERAL OF THE PHILIPPINES
Hon. (Mr.) ANTONIO CURAMENG
Consul General
Villa No. 19, 16th St., Abu Hail Road, Hamriya Area,
P.O. Box 94778, Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Tel. Nos. (00971-4) 266-9681 / 266-9643
Fax No. (00971-4) 266-6285

Honorable Antonio Curameng:

Would you kindly advise whether your office is aware of the rapes of Filipinas who are currently working in Dubai and whether any type of help is available to Filipino citizens who are violated while in the service of foreign nationals?

Your timely reply would be very much appreciated by the global OFWs.

Sincerely,
Winda Lagumbay Petilla

News item:

Man gets jail term for second case of abduction and rape
By Bassam Za'za Staff Reporter
Published: September 10, 2007, 00:16
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/09/10/10152570.html

Dubai: A young man will spend three years behind bars for posing as a policeman, abducting and raping a woman in a remote area, a court ruled yesterday.

Dubai Court of First Instance convicted 21-year-old UAE national, K.J., with impersonating a policeman, abducting the Filipina housemaid, C.M., raping her and stealing her cell-phone, as charged by the Public Prosecution.

This is the second ruling of its kind against the same defendant. On August 29, the court passed a similar sentence against him for impersonating a policeman, luring a Filipina housemaid, E.J., into his car, raping her and stealing Dh2,500 from her.

The 21-year-old pleaded innocent and denied the charges in both cases.

"I am innocent and do not even know the victims. I never even heard their names before," he had told the court earlier.

A policeman said in his statement: "The defendant is my neighbour. He refused to ... turn himself in for questioning. We arrested him later in a sting operation in Sharjah."

In E.J.'s case, a 42-year-old Filipina housemaid testified: "He posed as a policeman and asked us to get in his car .... He ... dropped me off at Al Wasl. E.J. phoned me later and said she got raped."

Manama, Bahrain -TWO maids and a Bahraini man have each been jailed for two months over an illicit love tryst. The Filipina maid, aged 29 and her 23-year-old Indonesian colleague were ordered by the Lower Criminal Court to be deported after completing their sentences.

* * *

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei - A Filipina who was charged with possessing a bullet was discharged but not amounting to an acquittal by the Bandar Magistrate's Court yesterday. Deputy Public Prosecutor Dk Hih Hang Molina said the criminal proceedings were discontinued on compassionate grounds and the fact that there was no evidence to suggest that the defendant is a security threat to Brunei Darussalanm. The 36-year-old woman, Florida Norman, has spent 10 days in remand at the Jerudong prison pending investigation being conducted. The defendant was previously charged with possessing an explosive, which was a bullet, without a licence issued by the licensing officer.

* * *

After almost three years of harrowing experiences in Syria and Turkey as an undocumented worker, Marietta (not her real name) is coming home to her family in Cotabato City penniless and with a five-month baby in her womb. Philippine Ambassador Bahnarim A. Guinomla reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday that 21-year-old Marietta has left Istanbul enroute to Manila on Sept. 5. Marietta sought the embassy’s help after she was abandoned by her boyfriend who got her pregnant and that she did not want to deliver her baby illegally in Turkey. Guinomla said Marietta was recruited in November 2004 by a friend in Manila who falsified her birth date to make it appear she was 33 years old, when in fact she was only 18. Marietta was promised a good job in Lebanon but was instead sent to Damascus, Syria where she was arrested upon arrival for possession of a fake visa.

* * *

Good news for dependents of Overseas Filipino Workers. About one hundred scholarship slots await qualified dependents of OFW members who wish to enroll in any four or five years baccalaureate course for School Year 2008–2009. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Regional Office 8 through Regional Director Ma. Evangeline V. Filamor announced that it is currently implementing the Education for Development Scholarship Program. Deadline for applications: October 31, 2007. In order to be eligible to the program, the applicant must be a Filipino Citizen; not more than 21 years of age; be a High School graduate; and be in good health. The applicant must be a beneficiary or dependent of an OWWA member. Beneficiary or dependent shall be limited to children of married OFWs or brother or sister of unmarried OFWs.

* * *

Demetrio Gabayeron, 56, of Purok Tinagong Paraiso, Brgy. Banago, Bacolod City, succumbed to acute lung cancer on July 16 after being confined at the King Faadh General Hospital in Jeddah for almost two months. Jeff Esperanzate of the Office of the Sectoral Concerns staff said the body of Gabayeron will be flown to Bacolod City today.

* * *

More than 400 Overseas Filipino Workers in the CNMI availed themselves of the free health check-up last Sunday, courtesy of the Philippine Consulate General in the Commonwealth. The free health screening was held at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office Filipino Workers Resource Center at the Marianas Business Plaza in Susupe. The screening was held in collaboration with POLO and the Overseas

* * *

The provincial government here and the Center for Japanese Filipino Children’s Assistance (CJFCA) target to identify and locate the Japanese-Filipino children, mostly offspring of Filipino entertainers who had worked in Japan, or those who used to be called Japayuki, through the registration that ends September 30. Rose Marlene T. Coraza, CJFCA representative, said there was a need to establish a socio-demographic profile of the Japanese-Filipino children in Camarines Sur and other provinces in the country in order to design a system of support to those neglected or denied of filial recognition.

* * *

A Singapore court on Friday gave a Filipino domestic helper 10 months jailterm for breaking the right arm of her employer's three-month-old baby boy. Karen Jimenez Francisco, 27, was concurrently given a one-week jail sentence for pinching the baby on his back. Singapore’s Straits Times reported in its online edition that Francisco was doing household chores when the baby started crying. She admitted to jerking the infant out of a baby car seat carrier, resulting in a fracture at the mid-shaft of his right arm on Aug 29, 2006.

* * *

Dubai Court of First Instance convicted 21-year-old UAE national, K.J., with impersonating a policeman, abducting the Filipina housemaid, C.M., raping her and stealing her cell-phone, as charged by the Public Prosecution. This is the second ruling of its kind against the same defendant. On August 29, the court passed a similar sentence against him for impersonating a policeman, luring a Filipina housemaid, E.J., into his car, raping her and stealing Dh2,500 from her.

* * *

The Philippine Embassy in Bahrain is set to investigate allegations against an employer who reportedly tortured a Filipino domestic helper, the Gulf Daily News reported Saturday. Aniqa Haider of the GDN reported that Marlina Gratuito suffered daily beatings, and that this string of physical abuses turned worst one day when her employer allegedly stripped, kicked, punched and scalded the helper with boiling water. According to the report, Gratuito’s ordeal was exposed only after she was hospitalized at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC). When embassy officials rushed to SMC after being alerted, Gratuito had been discharged into custody of the Hidd detention centre. Gratuito, 30, and a mother of four, came to Bahrain a month ago from Las Piñas in the Philippines. She is the only breadwinner for her family.

* * *

The Sentosa employment discrimination cases that have been filed against a New York-based recruitment agency by 26 Filipino health professionals are not yet over, their lawyer told INQUIRER.net Monday. In an exchange of e-mail and text messages, Felix Vinluan said the Aug. 31, 2007, decision by the Office of the Special Counsel (OSC) of the United States’ Department of Justice has been rendered "moot and academic" since the US DoJ’s Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (Ocaho) has taken jurisdiction over the complaints against Sentosa. Vinluan said he and his clients elevated the case to the Ocaho after the OSC failed to render a decision 120 days after the filing of the case, in violation of its rules. He said the OSC also postponed the decision three times, raising his and his clients’ suspicions that the OSC was sitting on their case.

* * *

The Bureau of Immigration said Sunday it has blacklisted an Egyptian national supposedly responsible for recruiting Filipino domestic helpers who suffered abuses, maltreatment and other unfair labor practices in the hands of their foreign employers in Egypt. Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said he has issued an order placing Magdy Rassekh in the bureau’s blacklist to prevent him from re-entering the country and victimizing more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). # # #