PRESS STATEMENT

6 JULY 2000

Reference:

Leo Legaspi
Chairperson

Free Joselito Alejo and all imprisoned migrant Filipinos!

Stop the beheadings in Saudi Arabia!

Joselito Alejo, a native of Plaridel, Bulacan, was a Saulog Transit bus driver before he left for Saudi Arabia in 1989 to get better wages for his family.  He was arrested in August 10, 1997 and jailed in the Malaz Jail at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Alejo was a mere witness to the murder of Saudi policeman Fahad Al-Otaibi. No court trials have been conducted and he has been unjustly charged with murder and drug trafficking. He has been on death row eversince.

Alejo, like twelve others, have been in death row for years now.  On July 1, 1998, Alejo and his fellow prisoners wrote to President Joseph Estrada to seek assistance. Nothing has happened. The action of the Department of Foreign Affairs if any, has been agonizingly slow. The Alejo family has been going back and forth to the DFA only to be given nothing but promises and empty reassurances.

All these have befallen Joselito Alejo and his family after all the remittances that have directly and indirectly benefitted the government; and the fees, "contributions" and fines that have to be shelled out by OFWs just to be able to work abroad, and for protection from an inutile government.

Many Filipinos have been beheaded in Saudi Arabia, mostly on unjust and inhumane grounds. And Alejo is next in line. We condemn the Estrada administration for its inaction on Alejo’s plight and its gross irresponsibility towards all other migrant Filipinos languishing in jails and those who are stranded, all in Saudi Arabia.

We demand that the Estrada government expedite the immediate release and repatriation of Joselito Alejo. We will likewise press for Alejo’s indemnification from his employer and the Estrada regime that is only intent on raking in profits from migrant Filipinos like Alejo; and intensifying the commodification of migrant labor. We urgently demand an end to the beheading of migrant Filipinos in Saudi Arabia. #

MIGRANTE International

56-C Masikap Street

Bgy. Pinyahan, Teachers' Village

Quezon City, PHILIPPINES

Phone: 435-9152

Tele/Fax: 435-6929

E-mail: migranteintl@pacific.net.ph