By Freddie G. Lazaro

San Fernando City, La Union (June 15) -- Senator Manny Villar asked the government to speed up help to distressed Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to save them from the abuses inflicted by their employers.

The call was made by the senator after he facilitated the return to the country of a battered OFW from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia namely Janette Nudalo, 43, from Caloocan City.

Nudalo, separated with three children, is recovering from a skull fracture inflicted by her foreign employers.

Results of her medical examination showed a linear fracture with sclerotic edges at the top of her skull that might cause from hitting with hard object.

"Due to severe pain, Nudalo placed on top priority for repatriation from Saudi Arabia," Villar said.

While recuperating from her wounds, Nudalo narrated her ordeal from her Arabian employers.

She recalled that she began to suffer abuses about three months after she arrived in the house of her employer on December 22, 2005 and became worst in May 2008. She disclosed that she was raped several times by her male employer and her employer's son.

At one time her male employer attempted to rape her again, she escaped and sought the help of Migrante International. The Migrante members paid for her taxi fare that brought her to Bahay Kalinga.

Not only battered and abused, she returned home empty-handed after failing to get an equivalent of her one-year salary.

In 1997, Janette's husband left her for another woman while she was still working in Taiwan. One of her children broke the news, advising her to stop sending money to their father because he got a new woman in their house.

Last April 29, the house in Caloocan where her children were staying was also demolished.