An Overseas Filipino Worker, who returned to Negros Occidental with the help of the provincial government, yesterday told of her harrowing experience as a domestic helper in Kuwait that led her and two others to escape from their employer.

Rachel Aquilisca Guzon, 25, of Barangay Minoyan, Murcia town said she went to Kuwait on July 21, 2010 to work for the family of a man who works in the Kuwaiti defense ministry.

Her employer’s wife slapped, kicked and beat her with kitchen utensils whenever she was displeased with her work, and their son attempted to force her to hold his sex organ, she said.

However, the son was unable to sexually abuse her, unlike the previous Filipina who worked for the family, she said, noting that he kept a box of condoms in his room.

Guzon said when her employer’s wife began beating her at whim she did not escape because her family is hard up in Murcia so she bore the pain to earn money to send home.

Her employer was paying her P9,000 a month, Guzon said.

But when the situation became unbearable and the beatings happened almost daily she, a Filipina from Tacloban and a Sri Lankan who worked for the same family escaped to the Philippine Embassy.

“We escaped in the morning when my employer went to bring his child to school and his wife was asleep,” she said. “The wife had told me that if I did not wake her up on time that day she would poke my eyes and beat me everyday,” Guzon said.

A Bago City resident was still working for her employer but she was not being abused because she was being protected by their oldest child, she added.

Her employer owed her six months salary when she left and never paid her, Guzon said.

The taxi driver who brought them to the Philippine embassy in Kuwait offered to hire her to work at his house, but she told him she was determined to get to the embassy so she could return home, she added.

There were about 500 Filipino workers, many from Negros Occidental, who were runaways from their abusive employers at the Kuwaiti embassy, she added.

Meanwhile, her mother, on learning of her escape, sought the help of the Office of the Governor through its Public Affairs Division to ensure her speedy return to the Philippines, Guzon said. She arrived in Manila on May 9.

Yesterday Guzon who went to the Capitol in Bacolod City to thank Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. for the help, met with his chief of staff, Jose Ma. Valencia, who said he would help her find employment locally so she would not have to go abroad again to make a living.*CPG

back to top