AN 81-year-old Filipina, apparently a victim of modern-slavery in the United States, will be reunited soon with her family in Tacloban City, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Tuesday.
The DFA said Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez has vowed to grant the wish of the former nanny, identified only as “Nanay Fedelina,” to be reunited with her family in Leyte province.
Nanay Fedelina was a nanny who was brought to the US by a Filipino-American family she has been serving since she was 16 years old. She spent 65 years in servitude that could only be described as a case of modern-day slavery.
She was kept in slave-like conditions until 2018 after the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC), through the help of US law enforcement, rescued her and helped pursue and win her case in court. She recently won her case against her former abusers, the DFA said.
Romualdez met her on September 15 at the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles.
“I want to go home to Tacloban and find my family,” Nanay Fedelina said to Romualdez, who expressed hope “to help her with her dream.
Romualdez reiterated the Philippine government’s commitment to uphold the welfare and protect the rights of overseas Filipinos at all times
“The President (Rodrigo Duterte) instructed us (government officials abroad) to prioritize overseas Filipinos. We must do our best to safeguard their welfare,” Romualdez said.
The DFA said that with the help of PWC, the Philippine Consulate General, and many other generous hearts in Los Angeles, Nanay Fedelina is ready to begin a new life at 81.
She came from a generation when slave-like employment practices or highly unregulated domestic employment were still commonplace in the Philippines.
“She also seems to be one of the few to survive this and gain freedom. Although transnational slavery has long been abolished, its modern-day incarnations still exist in the form of human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, unpaid salaries, and many others,” the DFA said.
The PWC facilitated the meeting between Romualdez and Nanay Fedelina. It was part of the joint advocacy of the Consulate General and PWC “to tell her story in the hopes that no more Filipino would fall victim to modern-day slavery,” the DFA said.
