Former ‘Sitaw’ Vendor Nancy Vitales Now Perfume Dealer in Riyadh

A former vegetable vendor and carabao shepherd is now a perfume and jewelry shop owner in Riyadh.

Nancy Vitales designs one of a kind jewelry products and sells perfume made in Paris.

“Bale, ito yung produkto ng White Crystal. Mayroon kaming 44 brands ng signature perfumes. First of all, yung perfume namin made in Paris. So hindi siya gawa sa iba-ibang place,” Vitales said.

Original perfumes are expensive but Vitales made them available to Filipinos at an affordable price.

“So nag-isip kami na bakit hindi natin i-repack o i-innovate ang mga perfume na to into size na ma-afford kahit sino man? Kung mayroon kang 400 riyals, apat na signature perfume ang mabibili mo,” she said.

At a young age, Vitales realized the value of hard work to be able to put food on the table. She took care of a water buffalo and sold vegetables like sitaw.

“So, nakamulatan ko na po na sa umaga, gumigising ako, kasama ko yung lola ko, yung nanay ko namimitas kami ng gulay tapos ibinibenta naming,” she said.

Vitales said the values she learned in the past helped her achieve the success she’s enjoying right now.

Continue reading at ABS-CBN News

80% of Saudi Men, Women Prefer to be Treated by Foreign Nurses: Survey

Eighty percent of Saudi men and women would rather be treated by a foreign nurse than a local one, according to an Arab News survey.

Twelve percent of around 200 people responded to the online survey said they did not care about the nationality of the nurse, while only 8 percent said they preferred a Saudi to treat them.

“Saudi nurses don’t have people skills and don’t care about your pain and feelings. If I had to describe them using one word, I would say ‘unkind’,” said Mouneera Dawood, a 38-year-old schoolteacher.

“I have been dealing with them for a while and every time I go for a checkup I ask my doctor for a new nurse, until I gave up on Saudis and decided to have a Filipino nurse who was more gentle when dealing with my pregnancy,” she added.

Saudi nurses are in a dilemma between meeting their patients’ needs and conforming with local culture and tradition, according to nursing consultant Dr. Sabah Abuzinadah.

Continue reading at Arab News

KSA Health Ministry’s Foreign Nurses with 10-yr Service Face Layoffs

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health has announced a plan to localize nursing jobs across all its facilities, the Saudi Gazette reports.

The ministry directed its administrative units, the ministry indicated that working contracts of foreign nurses serving at least 10 years in the country will be terminated. However, specialists in hemodialysis, emergency and ICU medicine will be retained as no local replacements are immediately available. The localization plan also does not apply to nurses working for primary healthcare centers located in remote areas unless suitable Saudi replacement is found.

The ministry’s order has been made obligatory for administrative units to strictly abide by these guidelines.

A source said the ministry plans to localize 300 senior nursing positions in the next three years. It also added that a new generation of qualified Saudi locals are capable of taking over jobs currently held by foreigners.

Filipinos have dominated the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia for decades. There are approximately 133,000 Filipino nurses who work in both private and public hospitals across the country. About 90 per cent of them are females.

‘Sagip Migrante’, a monitoring and assistance campaign launched only Friday by Migrante chapters in Saudi Arabia has monitored the termination of 39 Filipino workers from their jobs with the addition of six nurses working at the Saudi Ministry of Health.

Filipino Nurses ‘First Casualty’ of Saudi Nitaqat’s New Phase

As the new phase of Saudi labor localization, otherwise known as Nitaqat, commences, a Filipino migrants support group said Tuesday around 130,000 to 150,000 OFW nurses in Saudi Arabia are facing an uncertain situation in regards to the status of their employment.

Migrante-Middle East (M-ME) regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said, citing local news report, that Saudi’s Ministry of Health (MoH) has already announced a plan to localize nursing jobs in all its medical facilities.

According to the reports, Saudi’s MoH issued a circular to all its administrative units indicating that employment contracts with foreign nurses, including OFW nurses, who have already completed 10 years of service, will be terminated to give way to the employment of newly graduate Saudi nurses.

“Though it is a bad news to our OFW nurses, we are quite certain that Saudi’s MoH plan of replacing 10-year in-service foreign nurses including OFW nurses is in line of the Nitaqat that entered its new phase of implementation,” Monterona noted.

Saudi’s Ministry of Labor, last week, had announced that the Nitaqat enters new phase of implementation last Saturday, September 10.

Monterona added though the replacement of foreign nurses by local Saudi nurses will not be abrupt, termination is already occurring in government-run hospitals and clinics.

As per Migrante-ME ‘Sagip Migrante’, a monitoring and assistance campaign launched by Migrante chapters in Saudi Arabia, it already monitored 27 OFW nurses, out of the total 60+ that were terminated as of August this year.

The terminated OFW nurses were working in Saudi health ministry hospitals in Al-Tager and in Jeddah, both at the western region of Saudi Arabia. Fifteen (15) OFW nurses worked in Saudi-German hospital, also in Jeddah.

Continue reading at Migrante

PHL Gov’t Urged To Disclose ‘Blood Money’ Policy

Migrante, a migrant worker’s welfare group yesterday urged the Philippine government to reveal its policy on blood money amid requests of government assistance from families of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) currently on death row.


The request was made as a follow up to Malacañang’s decision to form a technical working group (TWG) last July to study the government’s policy on blood money, a term that refers to money paid to next of kin of a murder victim as a form of fine. In Islamic terms, Qisas can in some cases result in blood money being paid out to the family of victims. The amount varies from country to country and from case to case.

The decision to form TWG was made after a meeting called by Malacanang with representatives of foreign affairs, justice, budget and management, and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on political affairs last July 20.

John Monterona, regional coordinator of Migrante-Middle East, said it’s about time to seek the government’s opinion.

“Little less than 2 months since the creation of TWG on blood money, we believe it is time to hear from the Malacanang-formed TWG what are its policy proposals in regards to finding sources for the blood money of OFWs on death row,” said Monterona.

Monterona cited the request for blood money of the family of Rogelio ‘Dondon’ Lanuza, one of the OFWs on death row in Saudi Arabia.

“Amid Lanuza’s family plea to the government to help them raise the required blood money, the Lanuza’s are still awaiting a clear reply from the government,” Monterona said.

Migrante said that Lanuza was convicted in 2000 for killing a Saudi national, an act made only to defend his self. Lanuza has since been incarcerated in Dammam Central jail, Dammam, eastern part of Saudi Arabia.

Monterona, meanwhile, said that Lanuza’s mother has asked their group to arrange a meeting with Vice President Jejomar binay, the presidential adviser on OFW concerns.

He said Lanuza’s mother, who is based in the United States, is scheduled to arrive mid-September in the Philippines to personally appeal to President Aquino, Binay and officials of concerned government agencies to help them raise the blood money.

Repatriation for Over 900 OFWs From Saudi and Kuwait

Over 900 Filipinos who violated their conditions of stay in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have been repatriated back to the Philippines since June 2011, Vice President Jejomar Binay said.

Nine-hundred one Filipinos have been sent back home following his visit to the two Middle East countries. In Kuwait, 111 female overseas Filipinos who have sought refuge at the Philippine Overseas Labour Office(Polo)-Owwa Filipino Workers Resource Centre have been repatriated through the Vice President’s intervention. About 790 Filipinos stranded for years at the Hajj Seaport Terminal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia were also sent home.

“Many of our kababayans (countrymen) facing difficulties abroad are clamouring for government to help them return home, so we are continuing our efforts to reunite then with their families,” says Binay, the country’s Presidential adviser on overseas workers affairs.

For various reasons — including absconding from employers and terminated from work — OFWs have been unable to return to the Philippines through legal means. With assistance from the government, through Mr Binay, overseas Filipinos were provided help on travel documentation and discounted air tickets.

Binay said he is exploring various means to bring OFWs while encouraging the private sector to help in the repatriation. There are currently 994 Filipino migrant workers stranded worldwide as of August this year, according to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

Expatriate Nurses in Saudi Arabia Call for Standard Wage in All hospitals

Expatriate nurses working in the Kingdom’s private hospitals and other health institutions want their compensation upgraded to the level of the wages of nurses employed in the government health sector, according to the results of a survey conducted recently by the newly organized Philippine Nurses Association-Eastern Province Saudi Arabia chapter.

Those who responded to the survey felt that there was a need to standardize the salaries and compensation of all expatriate nurses working in Saudi Arabia, irrespective of their nationality.
At present, the compensation of expatriate nurses working in private hospitals is about half of the salary of their counterparts employed in government health institutions. The average monthly salary of foreign nurses working in government hospitals is SR4,500.

The survey indicated that the experience and training of foreign nurses employed in the private health area and government sector are the same and therefore survey respondents felt that the rate and level of their salaries should be uniform and equal.

Continue reading at Saudi Gazette

Info Desk for Saudi OFWs

A Filipino migrant rights watchdog has urged concerned Philippine authorities to set up an information desk in various international airports throughout Saudi Arabia.

Migrante-Middle East made the request in light of calls for assistance for newly arrived overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) after their respective employers or company representatives failed to pick them up at the airport to bring them to their designated company staff house or accommodation.

In his August 22 letter to Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) administrator Carlos Cao, Jr., Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said the establishment of an information desk at the international airports of the country of destination would be a big help to newly hired OFWs.

He cited as an example a nurse who arrived in Riyadh, the Kingdom’s capital, on the evening of August 20.

Continue reading at Manila Bulletin

Missing OFW in Saudi Arabia Could be in Jail

An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who was earlier reported missing for three weeks could be in a jail in Dammam, in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia, a Filipino migrant rights watchdog has reported.

The OFW, Mauro P. Magtibay, 51, from Batangas City, works as a technician for a company based in Dammam.

“We just got fresh information that Magtibay is possibly in a jail in Dammam, but we are still trying to get this verified,” Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said in a statement Wednesday.

Continue reading at Manila Bulletin