PR-021-2018

Riyadh-based OFW goes home after 18 years

First Secretary and Consul Mary Jennifer D. Dingal (second from the center), spearheads the repatriation of OFW Presuisa Tanilon (center), an undocumented worker with a medical condition, during her flight back to the Philippines at King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh, KSA

(Riyadh, 5 February 2018) - On 5 February 2017, the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia successfully repatriated Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Presuisa Abordo Tanilon back to the Philippines.

She was assisted by representatives from the Philippine Embassy headed by First Secretary and Consul Mary Jennifer D. Dingal, Head of the Assistance to Nationals Section (ANS), Social Welfare Attaché Maricel C. Deloria, Attaché Jefferson B. Talam, ANS Case Officer-In-Charge, as well as some members of Patnubay OFW Advocate Group.

OFW Tanilon was a stroke patient and had been undocumented for almost eighteen (18) years while living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was last 23 November 2017, when OFW Tanilon sought the help of the Embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) for her immediate hospitalization. She was brought to eight (8) hospitals but was refused for admission due to her status and having no insurance policy to defray the cost of her hospitalization. She was accepted, finally, in the King Salman Hospital, where she was given medical treatment.

Upon recovery and as per the attending physician’s recommendation that she is physically fit to travel alone, the Embassy immediately processed the extension of her Exit Visa after which she was unable to utilize during the Saudi Amnesty Program from March to November 2017.

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