The daughter of an overseas Filipino worker in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is pleading to the government agencies concerned to help her father who has been languishing in jail since 2013 for allegedly killing a Saudi Arabian over a salary issue.

In an interview on DAILY TRIBUNE’s online show Usapang OFW, Michaela Sequiño — who came from Cebu a day after her birthday — had also appealed to First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos to look into the case of her father — John Michael Sequiño — who was arrested for killing his Saudi sponsor.

Michaela narrated that she was only seven years old when her father left for Riyadh in July 2013 to work as a driver. As far as she can remember, she said, they heard news on 29 December 2013 that her father had been arrested.

She said her father’s employer became jealous of him and wanted him to go home. While the employer had bought a plane ticket for her father, he was not given his last salary, which sparked an argument.

Michaela said an altercation ensued and her father acted only in self-defense.

“My father would have been killed had he not defended himself,” she said.

DAILY TRIBUNE checked online reports on the incident that surfaced at the time but the Filipino driver was not identified.

“Riyadh police have arrested a Filipino driver for killing his Saudi sponsor. Police spokesperson Brig. Nasser Al-Qahtani said the crime took place at about 4 p.m. on Sunday. Sulaimaniya police were informed by telephone that a 56-year-old Saudi had been killed,” said the report on the Arab News website published on 31 December 2013.

Immediate arrest

The report said the Pinoy driver fled the crime scene but was arrested within a few hours of the incident.

The report was picked up by a local news website in the Philippines and Michaela confirmed it was the incident involving her father. However, she lamented that no reports followed on the welfare of her father.

“I just want my father to return home alive since I have not seen him since he left for Saudi,” a teary-eyed Michaela said, adding that 11 years was a long time for her father to suffer.

Sequiño was recruited by an agency identified as Fors International Inc. Michaela said the agency reached out to the family and gave them a one-time cash aid.

According to Sequiño’s half-sister, Marivic Yaon, they had sought help from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration but they were just given endorsement letters without any followup.

Yaon said they wrote then interim Migrant Workers Secretary Abdullah Mama-o asking them to check on Sequiño. The letter was received on 23 November 2018.

The letter said the recruitment agency forwarded their plea to Country TeamRiyadh and asked that the status of Sequiño be looked into and, if possible, he would be helped in applying for parole.

No other updates were provided since, according to Yaon.

And now Michaela — who just turned 18 — has sought the help of First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos after she received information her father had suffered a nervous breakdown.

She said she wrote a letter to the First Lady pleading her father’s case.

“I am appealing to our First Lady to help us with my father’s case,” said Michaela in Filipino. “We have already sought help from the DFA but until now no other information has been given to us.”

“I just hope the First Lady can help us bring my father home alive,” she added.

Meantime, DAILY TRIBUNE has reached out to Riyadh Labor Attaché Antonio Mutoc Jr., but he was in a meeting at press time.