Despite the political noise dominating headlines at home, the government insists it has not lost sight of Filipino workers caught in life-or-death legal battles overseas, Malacañang said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has instructed both the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to closely monitor the cases of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) confronting serious legal jeopardy abroad, according to Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary and Palace Press Officer Claire Castro.
Among the cases under watch are three OFWs imprisoned in Algeria who are awaiting the outcome of their sentencing, as well as Filipino workers on death row in Saudi Arabia. The Palace addressed the matter after the families of the detained seafarers publicly appealed for intervention.
The three remaining detainees in Algeria are part of a group of eight seafarers earlier tied to a quantity of cocaine, Castro said, citing a DMW report. Charges against five of the eight have already been dropped, while the trio continues to wait on the result of an appeal filed after their sentence was lowered.
Castro said the government had extended financial assistance to the seafarers who were able to return home. Representatives of the Philippine government have also visited the families of the three men who remain behind bars in Algeria.
The Palace noted a key limitation in the case: the Philippines cannot directly lobby the Algerian government for the seafarers’ release, as Manila is bound to respect that country’s judicial process.
