Three alleged staff members of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Global E-Human Resources Incorporated, the recruitment agency that deployed slain overseas Filipina worker (OFW) Joanna Demafelis to Kuwait, surrendered to the Philippine National Police – Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Thursday, March 1.
Agnes Tuballes, the alleged recruiter of Demafelis, said that she only referred Demafelis to the recruitment agency after the slain OFW asked for her help to work abroad.
According to Tuballes, she was a former employee of a company that deploys aspiring OFWs to Kuwait. The company, she said, was not licensed which pushed the company to partner with the recruitment agency.
.
Tuballes, however, clarified that she was already bound to Hong Kong to work as a domestic helper when Demafelis asked for her help to work abroad.
Meanwhile, Marissa Ansaji Mohammad, an employee of the recruitment agency, claimed that her job was merely giving application forms to aspiring OFWs and not processing of OFW applications as per multiple reports state.
She claimed that she cannot remember Demafelis despite Tuballes’ earlier claim that it was Mohammad who assisted Demafelis during the application process.
“Hindi ko po siya [Demafelis] hinikayat mag-apply, kusa po siya pumunta sa office,” Mohammad said.
The recruitment agency’s former assistant general manager, Mary Gay Canlas Abrantes, also submitted a sworn statement to NBI.
NBI NCR Regional Director Cesar Bacani said that according to the testimonies of Mohammad and Abrantes, Demafelis was deployed to Kuwait on May 18, 2014 under a two-year contract. The agreement states that once the contract is over, Demafelis will have to go back to the Philippines.
Bacani added that Demafelis arrived at Fadilah Farz Kaued Khodor Recruitment Office in Kuwait which found an employer for her.
He also said that the contract had already ended when Demafelis was transferred to her second employers, Nader Essam Assaf and wife Mona Hassoun, the primary suspects for the death of the OFW.
Bacani admitted that the NBI has yet to identify if Mount Carmel has any legal liability on Demafelis’ death. Despite this, he vowed to continue the probe on the recruitment agency as it is still the recruitment agency’s responsibility to monitor Demafelis despite its closure in January 2015 after its license revoked.
“Lahat ng lumalabas na pangalan sa imbestigasyon namin iniimbitahan ng NBI ,” Bacani said.
The probe was started following President Rodrigo Duterte’s orders to locate the local recruiters of Demafelis after her Lebanese and Syrian employers were arrested overseas.
