After years of waiting, a Filipina rape victim in Kuwait was repatriated to the country last Sunday, reuniting with her family to make a fresh start with the money she was awarded for her victory in the courts.
The Department of Labor and Employment on Tuesday said Marites Torijano won the rape and frustrated murder case she filed in 2014 against a Kuwaiti traffic police officer, who was given a death sentence but later commuted to life imprisonment.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Marites joined the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait’s 20th chartered flight to Manila on November 29, 2020, coinciding with the Philippine commemoration of the 18-day Campaign to End Violence Against Women (VAW). Her airfare was shouldered by the Assistance to Nationals (ATN) Fund of the DFA.
Before she left Kuwait, Marites paid a call on Philippine Ambassador-designate to Kuwait Mohd. Noordin Pendosina N. Lomondot who extended his best wishes to the Filipino.
“The Embassy is glad that Marites will finally close this difficult and painful chapter of her life, and will embrace her 14-year-old son once again after years of working overseas. I pray that with her second life, Marissa’s story and bravery will continue to serve as an inspiration to others in fighting for what is right and just,” Ambassador Lomondot said.
Before the special chartered flight’s departure, Embassy officials led by Vice Consul and ATN Head Adrian Audrey L. Baccay and Welfare Officer Llewelyn D. Perez sent off Marites and the 76 other Filipino repatriates at the Kuwait International Airport.
She stayed at the Embassy’s ATN Shelter and at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office-Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration’s Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Resource Center for a few years while pursuing her case in court.
The DFA provided Marites help under the Legal Assistance Fund, while the Embassy was able to secure competent counsel for her which assured her legal victory. She was represented in her case by Kuwaiti lawyer Sheikha Fauzia Salem.
“This victory is an example of the government’s continuous efforts and commitment in protecting and promoting the rights of our distressed overseas Filipinos anywhere in the world. After the long wait for justice, we are glad that we are finally bringing her home to reunite with her family and loved ones,” said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Sarah Lou Y. Arriola.
According to Labor Attaché Nasser Mustafa, Torijano was first deployed to Kuwait in September 2006 as a domestic helper then was transferred later on to work in a dress shop in Farwaniya.
While awaiting renewal of her residence visa by her employer, she was apprehended by a Kuwaiti policeman in the early morning of September 2012. She was driven to a desert in South Surra, where she was sexually assaulted inside a police car, then stabbed in the neck and back and left for dead by her assailant.
She was brought to the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital after a good Samaritan took notice of her crawling on the roadside to seek help.
In June 2014, the Kuwaiti Court of First Instance found the Kuwaiti traffic officer guilty of rape and frustrated murder charges, and was sentenced to death by hanging.
However, the court ruling was later commuted to a life sentence. The Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior, the employer of the Kuwaiti traffic officer, later paid Marites P3 million, representing her civil compensation upon order of the court.