Case Profile

CASE #03

Larra Gwynette
Aranas
BSTM-II

Jeanelyn Villavende, a 26-year-old Overseas Filipino Worker working News archives from
in Kuwait from Norallah, South Cotabato was brutally beaten and initial moment of
killed by her female employer on the 28th day of December 2019. incident: December
2019
She has been working as a house helper in Kuwait in honor of being a News archives from
breadwinner in their family as her father is a farmer and to provide the moment of
needs of her younger sister conviction to the
employers:
Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende was tortured and battered by her female December 2020
employer initially due to jealousy prior to her last moment. Villavende’s
lifeless body was brought to Al-Sabah Hospital on 28 December 2019
after months of physical abuse and deprivation by her employers. The
Embassy expedited the repatriation of her remains to Manila on 8
January 2020.

Consequently, reports circulated about how Villavende pleaded for help

from her recruitment agency a month before her tragic death.

In this light of her recruitment agency remaining mum on her case, her
family casts upon justice will be served and that the recruitment agency
will be held liable.

On the other hand, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevara have made

statements pertaining that Villavende was subjected to be a victim of
sexual assault based on her autopsy result conducted by NBI medico-
legal Dr. Ricardo Rodaje.

One year and two days after the brutal death of Overseas Filipino
Worker Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende, the Philippine Embassy in
Kuwait has welcomed the decision of the Kuwaiti Court of First
Instance on 30 December 2020 which found Villavende’s Kuwaiti
employers guilty of killing their Filipina domestic worker.
With this verdict, her female employer was sentenced to death by
hanging for premeditated murder. And Villavende’s male employer to
four years in prison for not stopping and reporting the planned murder.

To this Villavende’s family appeal appreciation for justice being served

to what Jeanelyn Villavende has experienced, however, hoping that the
severity of verdict to Villavende’s male employer must be heightened in
line with his deeds.

“May the Court of First Instance’s decision on the Villavende murder

case serve as a reminder to everyone that no Filipino is a slave to
anyone, anywhere and everywhere, and that justice will always come to
the defense of the weak and the oppressed,” the Embassy concluded in a
statement. [END]

References:
CNN Philippines Staff. (2020). Kuwaiti employer sentenced to death
for killing Filipina domestic worker. (2020, December 30). Cnn.
https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/12/30/kuwaiti-employer-
death-sentence-murder-jeanelyn-villavende.html

GMA NEWS [GMA News]. (2020, January 8). SONA: Labi ng

pinatay na OFW sa Kuwait na si Jeanelyn Villavende, naiuwi na sa
Pilipinas [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=7KgvlZ4ufmo