SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING PINAY MAID
KUWAIT CITY, FEBRUARY 23, 2012 (ABS-CBN) by Maxxy Santiago - The Kuwait
Criminal Court sentenced on Sunday a Kuwaiti couple identified as Abdulaziz Al
Falekh and Rabagh Mustafa Sahata to death by hanging for the premeditated murder
of their Filipino household service worker, Asria Samad Abdul, in July 2010.
Presiding Judge Abdulnasser Khuraibet also ordered the couple to pay KD5,000
or P765,000 as compensation to the victim's family in the Philippines.
Abdul, 34, a native of Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao was tortured by the
couple almost daily until she lost consciousness, according to police.
After torturing her, the couple brought her to the Kabd desert where the
couple allegedly ran her over with their car to make it appear that she died of
a vehicular accident.
Authorities found Abdul's crushed body near the stable in the Kabd Desert.
Police arrested the couple, who later confessed to torturing Abdul and running
her over with their car.
The Philippine embassy in Kuwait welcomed the Kuwaiti court's verdict.
The embassy, with the approval of the Department of Foreign Affairs in
Manila, has retained the services of a Kuwaiti lawyer, who took on the case of
Abdul to ensure that justice is served.
A "Justice for Asria Samad Abdul" page was launched on the social networking
site Facebook to drum up support for the speedy trial of the suspects.
A Dubai-based Filipino journalist, Ares Gutierrez, launched the campaign
after he came across the story on a Kuwaiti news website.
"Finally, it's over, justice is served. We've seen countless cases of migrant
workers - mostly household service workers -- being maltreated, abused and
subjected to inhumane conditions not only in Kuwait but elsewhere in the Middle
East and in some parts like Hong Kong and Singapore," Gutierrez said.
"This has to stop somewhere, somehow," he told the ABS-CBN News upon learning
the verdict.
4 Pinoys lose US jobs for speaking in Tagalog By
Rodney J. Jaleco, ABS-CBNNorth America News Bureau Posted at 06/22/2010 12:17 PM
| Updated as of 06/22/2010 1:26 PM
BALTIMORE, Maryland - Four Filipina ex-staffers of a Baltimore City hospital
haven't gotten over the shock of being summarily fired from their jobs,
allegedly because they spoke Pilipino during their lunch break.
"Hindi ko pa rin matanggap na the basis of the termination was the language,"
nurse Hachelle Natano told ABS-CBN News.
Corina Capunitan-Yap, Anna Rowena Rosales, Jazziel Granada and Natano were
fired from their jobs at the Bon Secours Hospital last April 16.
"I feel I was harassed and discriminated against because of my national
origin," Natano explained.
"They claimed they heard us speaking in Pilipino and that is the only basis
of the termination. It wasn't because of my functions as a nurse. There were no
negative write-ups, no warning before the termination," she added.
Last November, Bon Secours imposed for the first time an English-only
language policy in the Emergency Room, the nurses said.
Many hospitals, especially those with foreign medical staff, implement the
rule in trauma facilities because it's critical everyone understand each other
as they respond to life-and-death situations.
They were asked to sign the hospital's "Emergency Department Expectations"
that set the length of their lunch and snack breaks; lays down when they can
take a rest; and directs that English should be the only language spoken while
the nurses are on ER duty.
Granada was surprised when she too got the boot.
"I was shocked. I'm not even a nurse. I'm a secretary so I'm not involved
with patient care. It came as a big shock and I was asking myself, why I was
included," she told ABS-CBN News.
Lawyer Arnedo Valera of the Virginia-based Migrant Heritage Commission has
filed a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The nurses, he pointed out, were "arbitrarily terminated from work without
due process," and the English-only rule violated their basic rights.
Fired because of bagoong?
This is not the first time hospital workers have been fired or disciplined
for speaking in a language other than English.
In 2005, the EEOC led a federal law suit against the Highland Hospital in
Rochester, New York on behalf of five Hispanic housekeepers.
They were sanctioned after they were overheard saying "hasta la vista" or
goodbye as they were leaving work.
The EEOC said the English-only rule was unlawful and violated Title VII of
the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits job discrimination based on a person's
race, sex or national origin.
Valera believes the English-only rule at Bon Secours Hospital was too broad
and so lacking in clear guidelines to be fairly and legally implemented.
"If you speak just a single Tagalog word and someone hears you, that can be
grounds for termination which is what happened to our nurses," he explained.
"All it takes is just one word. That can be a greeting, a remark or even the
name of a Filipino dish. Based on this rule, you could say 'bagoong' (a
fermented fish sauce) and lose your job," Valera said.
Granada, still in the dark what Pilipino word she uttered to get the pink
slip, speculates it might have been because she called a Filipino doctor in the
hospital "Kuya" – a word of respect akin to the English "Sir."
The Filipinas' plight has been aggravated, they say, by the hospital's
inability to show any documentation of when the alleged violations took place.
Their dismissal was so abrupt it took several days for the termination papers
to catch up with them.
Nurses' rights
Valera said this incident goes deeper into the problems Filipino and other
foreign nurses face in US hospitals.
"There is no business necessity, there is no rational justification or direct
relationship between speaking in Pilipino to the performance of their job," he
said.
Lured by higher pay and wider opportunities for advancement, Filipino
professionals – doctors, nurses, engineers – have flocked to the US for the past
50 years.
The Philippines, India and Nigeria are the top suppliers of nurses in the US.
In the 1980s, nearly half of all foreign nurses entering the US were Filipinos.
"America is supposed to be land of the free but in our case we were
terminated because we spoke in our native language," Rosales said.
"It is so unfair for Filipino nurses. I am making an appeal to nurses'
associations that with this incident we should let them know that no patient is
harmed when we speak in our native language," she declared.
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
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PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
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