I’M AN OFW working in a coffee shop in Dubai. I read with interest the May 22 column of Rina Jimenez-David and the clarification made by the Department of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson Ed Malaya that a fellow OFW here in Dubai named “Angelica” was never the victim of rape while she was in prison here.
As early as last month, when we first got wind of the rumor about Angelica’s supposed rape while in prison, our closely knit OFWs in Dubai checked, through our contacts, if this story was true, and we found out that there was absolutely no truth to it.
It is hard to imagine that the rape of female inmates can happen in a United Arab Emirates prison because the government of our host country has strict rules and regulations regarding the mixing of unrelated males and females. In fact, only male guards are assigned to male inmates, and female guards to female inmates.
We were able to verify that Angelica was imprisoned for immorality, which in UAE simply means that a woman has been found to have mingled with a male who is not her husband or relative.
We fully support the efforts to free Angelica, but we also recognize the lesson to be learned from Angelica’s decision to party with an Iranian whom she had just met. As we all know by now, the Iranian and a companion raped Angelica according to her complaint.
My advice to fellow OFWs, especially to our Filipino women, is for us to concentrate on our jobs and to strictly follow the laws of our host country because the rules and regulations are there for our own protection.
In the case of Angelica, she would not have met that Iranian had she been mindful of the law in the UAE prohibiting the mingling of unrelated males and females, especially in intimate settings like cars or houses.
—RED VILLANUEVA,
villanueva.red.2011@gmail.com