RIYADH: Around 7,100 Filipino workers at Saudi Oger, who have not received their salaries for the past eight months, are desperately appealing to both Saudi officials and the Philippine embassy to help them resolve their problem.
“I want to respectfully ask our beloved President Rodrigo R. Duterte to kindly intervene and solve this problem and, if possible, send his representative who can talk to the concerned government officials of Saudi Arabia,” Arab News quoted a Filipino engineer, who requested anonymity, as saying.
“With due respect to our officials at the Philippine Embassy, who are tasked to help and facilitate the welfare of OFWs in KSA, I sense that something must be done to help us. We are in a critical financial situation,” he reportedly said.
He reportedly observed that the problem of these OFWs working at Saudi Oger needs immediate attention from their government. “We have not been paid salaries for the last eight months since November, 2015.”
“It is a very difficult situation for all of us, especially for those who have children studying here. Our children have not been enrolled in school. We would send them back to the Philippines, but the problem is that the company cannot give us air tickets, while we don’t have the money to buy them,” he reportedly said.
Those who have applied for final exit visas are still desperately waiting for their end-of-service benefits and pending dues. So far, they see no light at the end of the tunnel, the report said.
“I have been working at Saudi Oger Ltd. for almost 24 years. It would be a long story to tell how good the company was until, unfortunately, I found myself among thousands of employees who did not receive a salary for almost nine months,” another Filipino engineer who suffers from a malignant cancer reportedly said. “I have already a huge debt to pay for house rental, car installments, house in the Philippines, loan amortization, and a lot more for my daughter’s school tuition fees and more for basic needs.”
According to him, he has had to stop taking his medicine, as his medical insurance was cut off because of the financial crises of the company. “I have no choice but bend my knees before God and entrust my life to him,” he was quoted as saying by Arab News.
