Two women overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were brutally murdered in two separate incidents in Kuwait last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Tuesday. In a statement posted on its website, the DFA reported that a 34-year-old Astria Samad Abdul from Maguindanao was tortured to death by her Egyptian-born Kuwaiti employers last week. Her employers left her body in the Kabd desert area and was recovered by the police last July 17, the DFA said. Abdul's employers, identified by the Philippine embassy in Kuwait as spouses Abdulaziz Al-Falekh and Rabagh Mustafa Sahata, had admitted to the crime and now face criminal charges for thekilling. In a news story published in Arab Times, the Kuwait couple allegedly confessed that they had maltreated their Filipino maid. When they feared that the maid was already dying because of their beatings, they took her in their car to the horse stables area in the Kabd desert and ran their vehicle over her to give an impression that she was a road-accident victim. The other OFW, Norhaisa Nasa Andao, 32, from Cotabato, was stabbed 31 times by her Egyptian husband in the suburban area of Jabriya last week, the DFA said in the same statement. Andao's husband, Atallah Mohammad, allegedly stabbed her in a fit of jealousy. Philippine embassy officials reported that Mohammad fled immediately after killing his wife and that Kuwaiti courts have already issued a warrant of arrest and a hold departure order against him. The bodies of the two murdered OFWs will undergo forensic examination before they are repatriated, the DFA said. The cases prompted calls for President Benigno Aquino III's government to order a thorough investigation on the gruesome murders. Former labor undersecretary Susan Ople said despite the confession of Abdul's employers, the investigation should also look into how the Filipino maid was deployed, and the circumstances behind her transfer from one employer to another until she was killed by her own employers. “The Philippine embassy must take up the cudgels for our murdered kababayan and her family in the name of justice and accountability. Who deployed her? Based on scant details, it is apparent that she was already a victim of human trafficking and tremendous physical abuse even before she was killed,” Ople said. “Her employers should get the maximum penalty for this heinous crime, and the Philippine Embassy should make absolutely sure that the agent and agencies responsible for the Filipino victim's deployment and employment shall also be investigated and held accountable,” Ople said. Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said the DFA has instructed the Philippine embassy in Kuwait to secure the services of a private law firm to assist the local prosecutors in handling the cases.
