A Facebook post by a Filipino nurse working in a Kuwait hospital offered hint on whereabouts of an overseas Filipino worker from Maguindanao province.
According to the unnamed Facebook user, the post was intended to notify relatives of the Filipina, later identified as Norisa Manambit, 36, from Barangay Kauran, Ampatuan, in Maguindanao.
In a radio interview, Manambit’s niece Lady Mae Besa said she only learned of her aunt’s situation through her contacts on Facebook.
According to Besa, her aunt has been missing since January. Manambit, Besa said, left the Philippines last year to work as domestic helper in Dammam in Saudi Arabia. Their last communication with her, was during the last quarter of 2017.
“How can that be? We were so sure she went to Dammam, Saudi Arabia. How did she arrive in Kuwait?” asked Besa.
Besa learned that sometime in January this year, her aunt had a heated argument with her employer after she was seen using a mobile phone. The alleged altercation reportedly resulted in Manambit’s employer calling the police and had her locked up inside a prison cell.
“But when friends visited my aunt in Dammam Prison, they did not find her there,” said Besa, who added that they immediately sought help from her agency in th Philippines.
Allegedly, a staff from the agency told them not to report the incident to any media outlet or to the Philippine government while they are still making a follow-up on her case.
The family waited but after weeks have passed without any update.
“..until now, they would only give us false promises,” Besa said, adding that the concern over her aunt’s whereabouts elevated after the news about Joanna Demafiles, the OFW who was found dead inside a freezer in Kuwait, came out.
“We are praying she’s okay. But we’re in a limbo and this is making us so worried,” Besa said, adding that Manambit is a documented worker.