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- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 |Facebook: SDN – SciTech & Digital News
MECCA, Saudi Arabia, December 2, 2024 (SDN) — Philippine Embassy Chargé d’Affaires (CDA) Rommel Romato in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has suggested the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) establish an office in the country’s diplomatic missions abroad.
He told SDN – SciTech & Digital News that a BARMM office should include one in the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh.
“I met with some MPs (Members of the Parliament of BARMM) during the last Halal Expo in Riyadh last October. We discussed BARMM issues. I asked them if they can work in establishing an office of BARMM within our embassies, including here in Saudi Arabia to represent the interest of BARMM and its residents (example: migrant workers and pilgrims). This is part of their mandate as provided for in the BOL,” Romato of Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, BARMM, recalls to SDN.
“BOL” is the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) that established the BARMM to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).
The Moro diplomat revealed the embassy in the Saudi capital had earlier worked with the Department of Trade and Industry ((DTI) that resulted in the putting up of the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in the embassy.
As a result, he says the “DTI has deployed its commercial attaché in the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh since November 1. Alhamdulilllah!”
Romato said the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. or PhilHealth is also about to open its pioneer office in the embassy in Riyadh aimed at expanding its services to assist overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
He said the PhilHealth office has already received the green light, and it will operate like the Social Service System (SSS) and PagIBIG offices in the Philippine Embassy.
“BARMM can also be represented here, in sha Allah, under the Philippine Embassy,” Romato assures.
In relation with the concerns on OFWs from the Bangsamoro region comprising of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, and Tawi-Tawi and their respective cities Cotabato, Lamitan and Marawi, the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, initiated a meeting with Queenie Padilla, daughter of the only Muslim solon in the Senate, popular actor Robinhood “Abdul Aziz” Padilla.
Staff of the Consulate fetched Ms. Padilla here from the Jabal Omar Hilton Hotel overlooking the Masjidil Haram (Grand Mosque) along with a few other Filipinos who were in the Filipino group invited and sponsored on an all-expense paid Umrah pilgrimage by Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and his son Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud.
BARMM should heed Philippine Embassy suggestion to put up office in Riyadh, or Jeddah
Senator Padilla’s daughter who embraced Islam in 2012 did not speak with SDN about the meeting with the Philippine Consulate officials; two of those in the meeting did with some prompting. Their names will remain anonymous for they were not given the authority to speak about the meeting in Jeddah.
SDN‘s two sources who speak separately confirmed the meeting on November 28 between Queenie Padilla and embassy officials at the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah.
Apparently, the Jeddah Consulate would like Ms. Padilla to relay to her senator-father the concerns about problems encountered by OFWs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The sources said Consulate officials suggested that BARMM, apparently following Romato’s prior suggestion in October 2024, also suggested that BARMM create an office in the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh or at the Jeddah Consulate like what the CDA suggested to Bangsamoro MPs.
In addition, the Consulate General officials also made the suggestion that the Bangsamoro government put in measures to prevent Moro women or girls securing passports with fraudulent ages (such as minors putting their age as being 24 or older) to circumvent age restrictions in members of the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (AGCC) where many Filipinos work as household or service workers (in short: maid).
Securing legitimate passports with bogus year of birth has been a menace for Moro OFWs as they are wont to do, but with serious legal consequences.
Remember OFW Sarah Balabagan who was a minor at 14 years old when she worked as maid in 1994 in Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)?
She said her employer, a 67 years-old widower, Almas Mohammad Al-Baloushi tried to rape her but, acting on self-defense, she stabbed him 34 times. To make the story short, she was sentenced to a firing squad by the Al Ain Shari’ah Court but later, spanning lengthy negotiations and the intercession of the then UAE President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, the heirs of her employer agreed to the payment of US$40,000 “blood money”. The money was in exchange for her freedom, which Islam allows if the heirs of a murder victim agree.
This journalist covered the Balabagan trial in Al Ain in June 1995 as he was then a guest of the UAE Ministry of Information facilitated by the UAE Embassy in Manila.
Queenie Padilla and 38 other Filipinos performed Umrah pilgrimage on November 25 at the Mecca Grand Mosque after traveling from Madinah, over 400 kms. to Mecca, along with 210 Asian invitees of King Salman for the free religious journey, which in terms of the Philippines, the trip to Saudi Arabia for Hajj or Umrah costs from Php250,000 to Php300,000 (SR15,625-18,750).
The sponsored and privileged “kingly” guests from Asia stayed in the two holy cities of Islam which Muslims hold very dear from November 21 to December 1.
Implemented by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Da’wah and Guidance headed by Minister Abdullatif Al-Sheikh, the guests’ itineraries include Mount Uhud, King Fahd Glorious Qur’a Printing Complex, Masjidil Quba (Quba Mosque), meeting with one of the ministry’s scholars, Dr. Ahmad Al-Jelanie, and in Mecca visit to the cold and agricultural city of Tafi where they were treated to a cable car ride, and visit to Hira Cultural Museum on the Life of Prophet Mohammad (SAW).
Ministry officials said the Asian batch was the first with three more batches of sponsored Umrah pilgrims coming from Africa, Europe, United States, Australia, New Zealand, and others.
From the Asian batch, pilgrims came from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Mongolia, Japan, and Taiwan. (♡)