The Philippine Embassy is writing to you with regard to the news article you published on March 21 in the Kabayan section entitled “11 pardoned OFWs miss flight back home.” In the article, it was stated that after being pardoned, 11 overseas Filipino workers missed their flight to the Philippines as the Saudi jail authorities belatedly brought them to the airport. The article also mentioned that “Monterona (John Monterona, the regional coordinator for Migrante) meanwhile said that while the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh admitted that it has overlooked the OFWs' repatriation schedule, it promised to speed up the efforts to rebook the workers' flight, possibly next week.” This embassy categorically denies that it made such a statement that it indeed “overlooked” the repatriation date of the said Filipinos. The embassy wishes to clarify that the detainees are in the custody of the Saudi jail authorities. As such, it is the authorities who make all the necessary arrangements to ensure that the detainees are directly repatriated to their country. From their detention cells, the said individuals are directly brought to the tarmac and board the plane without going through the normal immigration procedure; in other words, they are not subjected to the departure protocols at the airport. Furthermore, it has to be emphasized that only Saudi authorities can bring the detainees to the airport and this Embassy, nor any other Embassy for that matter, does not have any authority to do so. This Embassy, in certain cases, merely submits the tickets of the detainees; the confirmation of these flights is also done by the jail authorities. In light of these considerations, the Embassy wishes to correct any false impression that has been created as a result of the aforementioned news article. Romulo Victor M. Israel, Jr.Charge d' Affaires __
