A criminal case has been filed filed against a Kuwaiti after a Filipina maid was found dead, with a cucumber forced into her body.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has announced that it is working with the Philippine Embassy and Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry to win justice for Constancia Lago Dayag.
In a statement issued today (Monday, May 20), the DFA said: “The DFA, through the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait, has hired a lawyer, who has already filed a criminal case. The Department will continue to provide legal and other assistance to the next-of-kin of the late OFW [overseas Filipino worker] Dayag.”
The details of the charges have not been specified. The suspect, who has not been named, is believed to have been Constancia’s employer.
The government has also pledged to shoulder the cost of repatriating of the remains of Constancia to her hometown in Cauayan, Isabela.
As we previously reported, she was pronounced dead at Al-Sabah Hospital in Kuwait on May 14.
Reports said she had suffered “contusions and haematoma”. A cucumber was found forced into her body, suggesting a sexual motive for the attack.
Other Kuwaiti deaths
Constancia is not the first Filipina maid to suffer a grisly death in Kuwait.
Last year, the government ordered a ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to the Gulf state following series of deaths and abuses, including Joanna Demafelis, whose body was found in a freezer.
The ban was lifted after the two countries forged a deal to protect Filipino migrant workers in the Gulf state.
However, in light of the latest death Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has said fresh restrictions may be considered.
He has also ordered the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Kuwait “to go after the foreign and local agencies” who deployed Constancia.
UPDATE: The suspect has now been confirmed as her former employer, 60-year-old Bader Ibrahim Mohammad Hussain.
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