OFW in UAE death row to get additional legal aid – Bello

Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III assured additional legal assistance to the Filipina household service worker now on death row in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Bello said he met with Jennifer Dalquez last week during his threeday trip in UAE.

“I instructed our Philippine Overseas Labor Office there, and Philippine recruitment agencies to provide Ms. Dalquez additional lawyers to see to it that her rights are well protected,” Bello said.

Dalquez was sentenced to death by a UAE court after she killed her employer in 2014 for allegedly attempting to rape her.

Her appeal is pending at the UAE Court of First Instance which rescheduled the release of its decision on the case from Feb. 27 to March 27.

Bello said Dalquez has a high chance of having her sentence lowered if she will be forgiven by the two children of her employer.

If they do, he said, there is a possibility that her death sentence will be commuted to a lower penalty of imprisonment. This could be life imprisonment or for 30 years.”

Bello said he may return to UAE later this month to check on the status of Dalquez before the release of the decision of the UAE court.

In a related development, Bello said he ordered the labor attache in UAE to fast-track the repatriation of the 48 run-away overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in UAE.

He said the recruitment agencies responsible for the deployment of the OFWs have already committed to pay for the repatriation.