Facebook post leads PH Embassy to find distressed OFW in kuwait

By Juan Escandor Jr. BAAO, Camarines Sur --- A post on the Facebook on Jan. 18 has led personnel of the Philippine Embassy to the location of a distressed overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Kuwait, who hails from Barangay Sagrada of this town, the sister of the OFW told Bicol Mail over the weekend. The 1-minute video of Yvonne Casareno Baal, 29, which Mariz Pontillas Sacueza posted, has gone viral with 1.6 million viewers and 54.6k shares as it shows a distressed Baal asking for help because she was being accused of stealing jewelry by her employer. Yvonne said she was supposed to have finished her contract on Feb. 13 but her employer was making up stories because of her impending completion of her contract. She said her employer threatened her by telling her that at any time the Kuwaiti police can arrest her because they believe she stole jewelry from the family. The OFW also gave the exact address where she is working at the Fahad Al Amhad St., Block 1, House 11. Gemma Baal Amparado, older sister to Yvonne, said she had communicated with her sister through the private messenger who assured them she was alright. Gemma was told by Yvonne that representatives of the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait had located her and her employer has already agreed to let her go on Feb. 28. She said Sacueza is a friend of her sister who also hails from Camarines Sur whom she has contact through the cellular phone. (Bicol Mail failed to get a reply from Sacueza through her Facebook account where she posted the video.) Mary Casareno Baal, 54, mother to Yvonne, could not hold back her tears when she narrated that she had always opposed Yvonne going abroad to work as domestic helper. “Yvonne assured us that the Philippine Embassy has talked with her employer and she will be allowed to go home on February 28. But while she is not here, I cannot sleep well,” Mary said. She said Yvonne, the third among four siblings, finished Bachelor of Science in Agriculture at the Central Bicol State University of Agriculture that made her disapprove her daughter’s plan to wwork as domestic helper abroad. The mother of the OFW said she was only told she was going to Kuwait when Yvonne was already at the airport in Dec. 2016. Mary said when she hears about the stories of abuse and maltreatment of OFWs in Kuwait she would cry thinking about Yvonne who is only receiving a monthly salary of P17,000. Gemma said Yvonne told her that two days after the Philippine Embassy people saw the video on the Facebook her sister was located. She said Yvonne told her that her employer chose not pursue her accusation of theft against her sister.