A former jailed Boholana migrant worker has appealed to the Kuwaiti government thru Philippine channels to release her baby boy and reunite him with mother in Bohol this Christmas. For the ex-OFW named Pipay (not her real name), there is no greater Christmas gift than having again her innocent child whom she left against her will and mother’s instinct in the far Arab land. She was forced to leave her Kuwait-born son to the care of OFW friends after she was arrested, detained and immediately repatriated last February for working on an expired visa.

The child is her son by a Kuwaiti police officer who falsely promised her a working visa should she yield to a relationship with him. Pipay, 35, single, of Talibon, was deported but not allowed to bring with her the baby boy because she lacked legal papers to prove that she is the mother of the child. She has longed to see again and finally reunite with her precious child right in barangay Bagacay, Talibon this Christmas with the assistance of Gov. Edgar Chatto. On Chatto’s intervention, the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait and other agencies have since moved to process all necessary papers for the repatriation of the child back to her mother, according to Reine Real of capitol’s OFW Desk.

Accompanied by her parents, Pipay approached Chatto for help when the governor held office in Talibon. Chatto attends to the constituents at the Governor’s Sub-office inside the Talibon municipal hall compound every first Tuesday of the month. The governor will once again report there on Tuesday, during which he will also lead in the same town the provincial government’s sixth HEAT Caravan. According to the OFW Desk, Pipay worked in Kuwait first as a domestic helper in 2005, a suite decorator of a restaurant-caterer from March 2007 to February 2008, and then a gift shop saleslady from May 2008 to August 2009. It was in her third job that she met and got romantically involved with her child’s father, a divorced Kuwaiti police officer who happened to be a brother of the gift shop owner.

By that time, the OFW’s working visa had already expired. Pipay had not secured any working visa as promised to him by the Kuwaiti until she got pregnant. Worst, he forced her to abort the child in return of a working visa or he would abandon her for his fear of being penalized in his own country for his illicit affair with an illegal migrant worker. But the Boholana chose life and had her child born on May 9, 2009 whatever her decision could cost her. The Kuwaiti abandoned her and their child. Jobless, Pipay had to seek shelter and daily need support from fellow migrant workers until she was allowed to work as a cashier in another restaurant in October 2010. On January 15, 2011, the Kuwaiti police raided the restaurant and arrested and detained her for illegally working. She was deported in the first week of February, leaving her child to the care of “Ate Laila,” an OFW friend but who is not a Boholana.

Meanwhile, before leaving Kuwait, Pipay managed to register her child, whom she calls “Jasven,” at the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait. Together with her parents, Pipay sought the help of the governor as soon as she learned that Chatto was at his Talibon sub-office one Tuesday. In turn, the governor formally linked with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Department of Social Welfare and Development and other agencies. Just this October, the OFW Desk at capitol learned that Pipay’s child is now in the care in of another OFW friend named Norma de Torres, who herself went to the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait to process the child’s papers. Latest information indicated a bright hope for the baby boy to be flown to Manila with escorting embassy personnel on time for Christmas here with her longing mother. Since getting home in February, Pipay could hardly sleep each night thinking of her tender child who will turn exactly two years and six months this Wednesday. (Ven rebo Arigo)