A Filipino worker was killed in a hit-and-run accident Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, earlier this month, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Tuesday.
The DFA did not identify the victim, only saying that the victim is a 51-year-old construction worker from Butuan City.
“We extend our deepest sympathy with the family of our kababayan who died a few days ago from injuries he sustained in a hit-and-run accident in Jeddah,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said.
Consul General Edgar Badajos said the victim was hit by a vehicle on June 12 and was taken to a hospital where he died from his injuries four days later.
Cayetano assured the family of the victim of assistance in the repatriation of his remains.
The Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah, meanwhile, said it has requested Saudi authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of the death of the victim. This surfaced following allegations of negligence on the part of the employer of the 51-year-old construction worker from Butuan City who died in the hospital four days after the incident.
Badajos said the Consulate will also make inquiries with the hospital where the victim expired to determine if the employer extended all the possible assistance to keep him alive.
Last week, the Philippine government also sought for the autopsies on the remains of two Filipino household workers who figured in two separate “suicide” incidents in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.
Philippine Embassy officials in Beirut and Riyadh have coordinated the autopsy procedures with both the Lebanese and Saudi authorities to rule out foul play in the deaths of the two Filipino workers.
On June 11, a 35-year old Filipino household service worker from Cagayan province died after reportedly jumping from her employer’s sixth-floor apartment in the Lebanese capital, according to the Philippine Embassy in Beirut.
The second case involved a 40-year-old mother of two from Agusan del Sur who allegedly hanged herself with an electric cord at her employer’s residence in Al Hasa, outside Riyadh.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is expecting the findings in both cases to be completed this week.
SOURCE : ALBILAD
