By Ven ArigoA
Boholano overseas Filipino worker (OFW) jailed for over seven months in Saudi Arabia for alleged grave infraction against the Islam faith was finally released.
Roel Soliva Sebandal arrived at the Tagbilaran City airport yesterday morning but his wife Mylene and two-year-old son John Paolo are left in Riyadh.
Accompanied by his mother Lilia and a cousin, Sebandal rushed to the house of Rep. Edgar Chatto here to thank for the congressman’s assistance. They were accommodated by the solon’s wife, Pureza, because her husband had left earlier to meet some Bohol guests from Manila.
The migrant worker, a resident of Gallares Street here, vowed never to return to work in Riyadh or anywhere in Saudi Arabia.
He told some press people who chanced upon him at the solon’s residence that he had contracted phobia and feels alarmed even by just seeing an Arab policeman.
Sebandal said he was falsely accused of stepping on a Koran, Islam’s bible, placed on the floor below the driver’s seat of his car.
The OFW, 35 years old, was teary eyed while recounting how the Saudi policemen slapped him and banged his head on a hard table just for him to admit on the matter.
Like a brute, Sebandal was tortured in a bartolina for weeks until he was transferred to the main prison in Riyadh pending investigation, which lasted for months.
Meanwhile, his wife, who followed him to Riyadh together with their only child, managed to find a job as a physical therapist in a wellness club.
She worked to sustain her and son’s daily needs while her helpless husband languished in jail.
Sebandal was already about eight years abroad, working as an air-conditioning technician in Saudi Arabia.
The fateful day came on the 10th of April this year when he had his car washed in a shop, which workers were Bangladeshis, because he planned to sell it and buy a new one.
When the washing was over, Sebandal asked one shop helper for something to place on the wet front floor of his car. He was given a piece of paper.
He boarded his car, his feet stepping on the paper on the wet car floor when he was suddenly apprehended.
Sebandal was brought to a police station and was later told that the paper he had stepped on contained Islam teachings written in Arabic.
He was even accused of seriously committing an infraction against the Islam religion for tramping on the Koran book itself.
Fear had forced the Boholano migrant worker to sign a document in “admission†of the crime against the Arab faith.
While in the main jail---with an estimated 300 other helpless OFW prisoners---Sebandal managed to contact his mother here thru his wife who could only occasionally visit his jail.
Thus, the OFW’s mother sought assistance from Chatto’s office for all possible assistance leading to her son’s release from prison and return home.
Sebandal’s case was also raised to Vice Pres. Noli de Castro during the latter’s visit here last July 22.
The OFW was assisted only by a private counsel, who is an Arab lawyer provided to him by his kind Saudi employer, in the early stage of the investigation. He had not yet contacted his mother by that time.
Meanwhile, Chatto linked with top officials of such agencies as the Philippine Embassy in Saudi, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Department of Foreign Affairs (DOF). Subsequently Sebandal was notified for release last Monday.
He had not been convicted and sentenced for the alleged crime, but the OFW had already spent seven months and seven days behind bars.
Upon arrival at the international airport in Manila, Sebandal immediately went to see Chatto at Congress in Quezon City. The solon facilitated his free travel to Bohol.
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