MANILA: Under oath before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, assistant labour attaché Antonio Villafuerte denied all the allegations against him made by three former overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) of inappropriate behaviour and attempted rape.
Villafuerte, of the Philippine Overseas Labour Office (POLO) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, said he was a good man who worked hard to serve the country and was sympathetic to the plight of OFWs, especially those who were abused by their employers.
But many of the senators present during yesterday’s hearing on the so-called sex-for-flight scandal found it hard to believe that Villafuerte was as innocent as he wanted them to believe. For them, the language Villafuerte used betrayed the type of person he is, especially how he treated women.
During yesterday’s hearing, one of the victims known only as Michelle showed a text message that Villafuerte sent her when she was still staying at the Bahay Kalinga or halfway house operated by the Philippine government in Riyadh, as proof of her claims against him.
In the text message supposedly sent by Villafuerte to Michelle, the labour official informed her that he had bought her “salungsu” and “salungki” as she requested.
The two terms supposedly used by Villafuerte were not words commonly used by Filipinos to refer to underwear and were, in fact, considered vulgar.
Both Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen Jinggoy Estrada were aghast at the content of the text message, which Villafuerte did not deny.
Villafuerte said the “salungsu” or brassiere and “salungki” or panty were words that he learned in school in his Filipino subjects.
Enrile admonished Villafuerte for his behaviour, which he said belied his being discourteous in spite of his position as a diplomat.
“You are supposed to be courteous. As a diplomat, did you not consider that you were talking to a fellow Filipino? You knew that she was going through so much already and still you did that to her,” Enrile told Villafuerte.
Villafuerte replied he had no ill intention when he used those words with Michelle, but Enrile said this was unacceptable.
Asked by Enrile if he would use such language with his wife, Villafuerte said that he would and had in fact done so during light moments.
The Philippine star
