A lawmaker on Monday suggested the Department and Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Department of Justice (DOJ) should form a task force which will monitor developments in the case of slain overseas Filipina worker (OFW) Joanna Demafelis.
ACTS OFW party-list representative John Bertiz III said ‘Task Force Justice for Joanna’ will coordinate with the other countries involved in the case.
“Based on news reports, it appears that Syrian authorities handed the husband, Nader Essam Assaf to Lebanese authorities while keeping his Syrian wife under detention, and the sentencing to death in absentia took place in Kuwait,” he said.
The formulation of the task force, Bertiz added, will also show the commitment of the country in obtaining justice for the Filipina through constant coordination and monitoring with the other countries.
Meanwhile, Bertiz stressed the DOJ should continue its investigation on Demafelis’ local recruiters.
“We are calling on the owner of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Global Solutions to surrender himself and disclose the manner by which Joanna had been recruited,” he said.
Bertiz also said deployment ban to Kuwait should not be fully lifted until safety of OFWs to work in the Gulf state is ensured.
“Our goal should be to ensure that every Filipino domestic worker bound for Kuwait and elsewhere will be protected from harm and abuse. While we welcome these positive developments in her case, let us not forget how Joanna died,” Bertiz said.
On February 6, the body of Demafelis was discovered stuffed inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait.
Autopsy showed the OFW suffered repeated beatings which resulted to a broken rib, trauma, and internal bleeding.
Her employers, Nader Essam Assaf, a Lebanese national, and his wife Mona Hassoun, a Syrian national, were the primary suspects for the murder and were subjects of search of the Interpol.
The two flew out of Kuwait until Assaf’s arrest on February 23 and Hassoun’s arrest on February 24.
Earlier this week. a Kuwaiti court sentenced death by hanging to Assaf and Hassoun.
The court released the decision during the first hearing of the case under a Kuwaiti court.
The couple, however, can still appeal for their case if they will return to Kuwait.
