Philippines provides legal aid to 2 arrested Filipinos

The Philippine Government, through its Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and its Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), is providing legal assistance to two contractual workers in the UAE, who are among 35 individuals, ordered arrested over the weekend by UAE Attorney General Dr. Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, for uploading misleading content and videos over various social media platforms, amidst the ongoing USA-Israel-Iran War.

- Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

The official statement on the assistance is over the official Facebook Page of the Philippine Embassy-Abu Dhabi since 1 p.m. of Monday.

The two Filipinas belong to the second set of "25 individuals of various nationalities" caught violating UAE rules and regulations relative to the war that entered its 17th day on Monday.

An initial 10 were ordered arrested on March 14. According to the diplomatic mission statement, "legal assistance is being extended to the arrested individuals through the Embassy's retained legal counsel."

Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Alfonso Ferdinand Ver told Gulf Today that the legal assistance fund shall be derived from the DMW coffers since the two arrested are "OFWs" (overseas Filipino workers).

This reporter sought the clarification since from the Feb. 3, 2023 effectivity of the Dec. 30, 2021 signing of the law, creating the DMW, during the tenure of then President Rodrigo Duterte, all issues surrounding the protection and welfare of all OFWs worldwide, have been transferred from the DFA to the DMW and its agencies, such as the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.