MikeLigalig.com

By the Bohol Chronicle

Two overseas Filipino workers jailed for separate offenses in Saudi Arabia have finally gone home on intercession of Rep. Edgar Chatto, to the OFWs their champion.

Ranelo Gallo and Reynaldo Exclamador, both already jobless in Jeddah owing to their imprisonment,safely returned home just days ago and have been reunited with their respective deeply-worried families.

The first was supposed to serve in the Arab jail for one full year because of fake iqama (work and
residence permit) while the other for six months following a bribery charge.

Gallo, a Balilinhon, and Exclamador, who has relatives in Dauis, have long both settled in Mindanao with their families.

Meanwhile, Chatto reported his coordination with the Department of Health (DOH), thru the Gov.
Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital, and Philhealth for free services to the land-based OFW-members and their dependents at selected government hospitals in the country.

Gallo and Exclamador thanked the First District congressman for their repatriation while their loved ones took the return of the two OFWs and their reunion with them as most precious, although belated, Christmas gifts.

There are other formerly jailed OFWs released much earlier than Gallo but who still remain undeported back to the Philippines probably because no officials in their home provinces are assisting them or coordinating with the proper agencies like the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), according to Gallo. 

The working permit of Gallo, an electrician in Jeddah, already expired but his desire to still earn for his family back home prodded him to find another work.

There are several similarly-situated TNT (tago ng tago) OFWs in Saudi Arabia but who are not caught despite monitoring by the strict Arab authorities.

Gallo wished to earn more despite his expired working visa because he had been paid lesser than how much was stipulated in his original contract. 

Upon arriving in Jeddah, he was made to sign another contract without understanding its Arabic contents.

The OFW learned later that in signing the Arabic document, he thus "agreed" to work there for three years instead of only two with a salary far smaller than how much was agreed in his original contract written in English.

Gallo admitted that he did not undergo pre-departure orientation by proper Philippine authorities in going to the Middle East for employment.

Exclamador, on the other hand, was accused of attempting to give money to an Arab authority just to get a driver's license.

A relative in Bohol had sought assistance from Chatto to rescue Exclamador from the Saudi prison and facilitate his repatriation as in Gallo's case.

In another case, Chatto interceded for the rescue and protection of a maltreated Maribocjanon maid in the United Arab Emirates.



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