Filipino victim of ‘modern day slavery’ in US freed after 65 years
Credit to Author: BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO| Date: Wed, 09 Oct 2019 02:15:06 +0000
Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez vowed to grant the wish of the former nanny, identified only as “Nanay Fedelina”, to be reunited with her family in Tacloban City in Leyte province, the DFA said in a statement on Tuesday.
Nanay Fedelina was a nanny who was brought to the US by the Filipino-American family she was serving when she was just 16 years old.
She spent 65 years with the family who treated her like a slave until 2018 when the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC), through the help of US law enforcement, rescued her and helped pursue and win her case in court against her former abusers, the DFA said.
Romualdez met her on September 15 at the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles.
“I want to go home to Tacloban and find my family,” Nanay Fedelina said to Romualdez. The Ambassador had expressed hope “to help her with her dream,” the DFA said.
Romualdez reiterated the Philippine government’s commitment to uphold the welfare and protect the rights of overseas Filipinos at all times
“The President (Rodrigo Duterte had) instructed us (government officials abroad) to prioritize overseas Filipinos. We must do our best to safeguard their welfare,” Romualdez said.
The DFA said that with the help of PWC, the Philippine Consulate General, “and many other generous hearts in Los Angeles, Nanay Fedelina is ready to begin a new life at 81.”
She came from a generation when slave-like employment practices or highly unregulated domestic employment were still commonplace in the Philippines.
“She also seems to be one of the few to survive this and gain freedom. Although transnational slavery has long been abolished, its modern-day incarnations still exist in the form of human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, unpaid salaries, and many others,” the DFA said.
The PWC facilitated the meeting between Romualdez and Nanay Fedelina. It was part of the joint advocacy of the Consulate General and PWC “to tell her story in the hopes that no more Filipino would fall victim to modern-day slavery,” the DFA said.