Group questions assignment of RP police attaché to KSA

MANILA, Philippines — A migrants rights group on Thursday questioned the Philippine government’s priorities in assigning a police attaché to Saudi Arabia instead of providing more legal experts to assist the numerous cases of distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

The Hongkong based Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APPM) said Senior Supt. Jimmy L. Manabat of the Philippine National Police arrived in Riyadh on February 24 to serve as police attaché to combat transnational crime. He was accompanied by SPO4 Wendel D. Vergara, who will be his administrative assistant.

The Intelligence Group of the PNP is the unit that posts and manages police attachés and staff for foreign intelligence operations. It defines its mission as performing intelligence and counter-intelligence operations directed against individuals or organized groups engaged in subversion, insurgency and other forms of activities that are considered threats to national security. It builds intelligence networks against security threat groups and criminally.

APMM said "from any angle legal attachés are more important than a police attaché especially in Saudi Arabia," which is host to an estimated 1.2 million Filipino workers and their dependents.

Advocacy groups helping distressed Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia have said many OFWs are being incarcerated due to lack of legal help from the Philippine missions there.

“The government should also be taken to task and explain why there is a police attaché there given that this is directly under the guidance of the Intelligence Group of the PNP.

"We are urging the Senate and Congress especially its labor and OFWs committees respectively to conduct in aid of investigation, if there is really a need to deploy a police attaché, instead of legal experts to the KSA," Gi Estrada APMM coordinator said in a press statement.

"It is a known fact that there are OFWs charged with crimes in the Kingdom but the government failed to provide any legal assistance to them like hiring a lawyer for their defense," he said.

On February 3, Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo filed House Bill 5657 that seeks to expand the scope and upgrade the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) program to provide full legal assistance to migrant workers and overseas Filipinos in distress especially in the Middle East.

One of the provisions of the bill is to deploy legal attachés to all Middle Eastern countries. Unless certified urgent by the President, however, the bill may take years to be acted upon.

In seeking an investigation, APMM said the public should be told what the government hopes to achieve in deployeing a police attaché in Saudi Arabia, and why only in Saudi Arabia and not in other Middle Eastern countries? - D'Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV

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