Vernadette Junio, 30, of Silay City is one of 70 Filipino contract workers recently sent home by their employer, the JW Marriott Hotel in Tripoli, because of unrest in Libya.

Junio, a former manager of the Amrei Hotel of Bacolod City, who worked as office coordinator at the JW Marriott Hotel, is back in Negros Occidental and went to the Office of the Governor help desk at the Capitol in Bacolod City yesterday to call the Philippine Embassy in Libya.

Junio said that the Marriot, one of the tallest state-of-the-art buildings in Tripoli had just launched its soft opening on February 15, before the civil unrest in Libya began, Negros Occidental Public Affairs Division head Benja Lucasan said.

Junio told Lucasan their employer brought her and her co-workers to Aman, Jordan, before they were flown home to the Philippines.

Their employer advised them to submit their résumés for possible deployment or absorption by other branches of their hotel worldwide, she said. 

Filipinos prefer working in Libya where they receive higher compensation without being taxed by the Libyan government, she said.

She went to the PAD yesterday afternoon to call the Philippine Embassy in Libya to locate the whereabouts of her sister-in- law, Irene Junio, 38, who is still in Libya.

Irene teaches at a government-owned nursing school in Libya.

Two other Negrenses waiting for repatriation were successfully contacted by their wives, through the help center phones yesterday afternoon, Lucasan also said.

They are Eugenio Hellera Jr., 49, of Menlo IV, Talisay City, who worked as an equipment maintenance technician in Libya and who is now in Malta waiting for issuance of his travel documents. He was contacted by his wife, Sharon Hellera.

The other OFW is Menardo Cumawas, 46, of Hervias II, Bacolod City, who worked as crane operator in Libya.  He is now in Cairo Egypt, also waiting for his travel papers, when contacted by his wife, Judith through the free hotline, Lucasan said.    

Meanwhile, PLDT has committed to supply the provincial government with free call cards starting today for those wishing to contact relatives in Libya and earthquake-hit New Zealand.*

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