A Mother’s Sacrifice Ends in Tragedy

Truly, a mother will do anything for the future of her children. There is no hardship she will not endure, and no sorrow she will not bear in silence.

Mary Jean Balag-ey Alberto left the Philippines carrying great dreams for her family and children. However, after only three months in Abu Dhabi, she was brought back to her home country as a cold, lifeless body.

What exactly happened to Mary Jean Alberto in the Middle East? This story is a painful testament to the suffering endured by a fellow OFW abroad.

Mary Jean Balag-ey Alberto was a native of Mountain Province. After marrying, she settled in Antipolo, Rizal, where she was blessed with three children. Eventually, the couple decided to separate, and Mary Jean became the sole caretaker of their three children.

According to her children, Mary Jean was a loving and dedicated mother. They witnessed her perseverance in raising them well despite significant financial hardship. She never surrendered to any problem and managed to smile even when they knew she was utterly exhausted.

When her eldest child, Rogin, reached working age, he decided to work abroad to help his mother and siblings. After Rogin left, Mary Jean made the emotional decision to follow him, feeling ashamed that her son was working overseas for the family.

The Desperate Plight in Abu Dhabi

There is limited information regarding Mary Jean’s application process for Abu Dhabi, but reports suggest she did not follow the proper application channels.

She likely applied directly for a job as a family driver. However, upon her arrival in Abu Dhabi on July 7, 2019, instead of working as a driver, she was forced to work as a domestic helper for a Moroccan family.

Her employers initially assured her that this was only a temporary arrangement while they processed her driver’s license. She agreed, serving the family as a domestic helper.

In conversations with her children, who communicated with her via video call, Mary Jean revealed her grueling work conditions.

She worked from 5:00 AM and often did not stop until 3:00 AM the following morning, leaving her only two to three hours of rest per day. Her rapid weight loss was alarming.

Her employer also forbade her from eating until all her work was completed, a condition that led to her hospitalization due to exhaustion and malnutrition.

Furthermore, her employers confiscated her cellphone, only returning it after she finished her work. Her children often sacrificed sleep just to talk to her during her brief periods of rest.

Despite the unbearable conditions, Mary Jean endured the hardship, hoping that her situation would improve once the promised driver’s license arrived.

However, when her visa arrived in September 2019, the job description clearly stated “domestic helper,” not “lady driver.”

As time went on, her employer’s treatment of her worsened. She often sent photos of bruises to her children and fellow OFWs, saying her female employer frequently scolded her and became irritable over minor things.

She was once physically assaulted because the house was allegedly marked with ink from the children she cared for. This abuse compelled Mary Jean to want to return to the Philippines immediately.

The Final Plea and the Missing Diary

On October 1, 2019, Mary Jean called her youngest child, Ran. Her face was etched with profound sadness during their conversation.

She told Ran she would not be sending money. Instead, she planned to use her remaining salary to buy a plane ticket home. On the same day, she sent frantic messages to her sister, Marie, pleading for help.

She told her sister she was being monitored and choked by her female employer, who falsely accused her of having a relationship with the male employer, Hamoud. She begged her sister: “Please send Jingjing here [to help me]. Madam nearly choked me. She is accusing me of Hamoud. Please call the police for me.”

The following day, October 2, contact with Mary Jean was completely lost. Overwhelmed with fear, her son Rogin directly contacted his mother’s employer via WhatsApp. At 3:52 PM, he received a devastating reply: his mother was deceased.

Rogin, accompanied by his aunt Marie, rushed to the Philippine Embassy and spoke with the Assistance to Nationals (ATN) officer, detailing the situation and asking for immediate help.

The officers, who had no received no official report from local authorities, advised them to confirm the news and instructed them to send a copy of Mary Jean’s passport to a general email address.

Upon receiving a call from his mother’s employer, Rogin was directed to the Shabiya police station. There, authorities explained that his mother had allegedly jumped from the balcony of the 13th floor of their residence. The employer promised to assist the family.

The police confirmed the suicide, a claim the family vehemently denied, pointing to Mary Jean’s desperate final messages pleading for rescue.

Rogin was advised to return to the police station later to see the remains, but he was consistently denied access, being told the investigation was not yet complete.

Bureaucratic Ordeal and Partial Justice

Rogin returned repeatedly to the Philippine Embassy, relaying the confirmed death.

The officers advised him to wait for the forensic report before they could take further steps and referred him to the Repatriation Department. He was given a list of requirements to fulfill.

On October 4, Rogin returned to the police station and was told to check the hospital for permission to see the body. At the morgue, he was told the forensic procedure would take one to two weeks.

On October 9, he finally received three pages of documents from Sheikh Khalifa Hospital. The documents were written in Arabic and were not explained to him.

Meanwhile, the family back in the Philippines was denied financial assistance from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) because Mary Jean was deemed an undocumented OFW.

The family then reached out to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), who advised them to file a formal report in Manila for faster processing.

The news quickly spread through UAE and Philippine media, prompting the panicked Philippine Embassy to finally reach out to the family, offering help and demanding updates from the police and morgue.

Embassy officials accompanied Rogin to the Moroccan employer’s residence in Shams Mira Tower to retrieve her belongings.

The Moroccan employer was openly angry upon their arrival but handed over the packed belongings.

Rogin was heartbroken to find that several of his mother’s personal items, including her mobile phone messages and crucial diary pages, were missing or had been tampered with.

Rogin filed a formal complaint with the Abu Dhabi court. During the hearings, the defense argued that Mary Jean’s suicide was plausible, but Rogin countered with her final messages, proving she was desperately seeking rescue, not death.

Though there was insufficient direct evidence to incriminate the Moroccan nationals in the act of taking her life, the Abu Dhabi court delivered a verdict of guilt for abuse. The individuals responsible were sentenced to five years of imprisonment.

While the sentence was deemed insufficient by the family, they took solace in the fact that, despite their poverty, their lack of sufficient knowledge, and the frustrating lack of initial government support, they had managed to secure a measure of justice for their mother. They ultimately entrusted the final judgment of the wrongdoers to God.