Filipina Acquitted of Murdering Employer in UAE Thanks Gov’t for Getting Her Out of Death Row
Jennifer Dalquez breaks into tears upon seeing her parents following her arrival from Abu Dhabi this morning. In her statement upon arrival, Jennifer expressed her gratitude to President Duterte, the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi and all those responsible for her acquittal and return to the Philippines. (DFA Photo)
02 November 2018 — After spending almost four years in an Abu Dhabi prison, acquitted Filipina murder suspect Jennifer Dalquez finally boarded her flight to freedom on Thursday evening but she did not leave without expressing her gratitude to the Philippine Government for its successful efforts to get her out of death row.
Dalquez will be arriving in Manila on Friday morning on board a Philippine Airlines flight that is also bringing home 86 undocumented Filipinos who availed themselves of the three-month amnesty program of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"Taos puso po ako nagpapasalamat sa embahada na tinulugan po ako nila sa kaso ko hanggang makalaya at sa gobyerno ako po'y taos pusong nagpasalamat sa inyo sa tulong na ginawa nyo sa akin. Maraming, maraming salamat po!,” Dalquez said in a handwritten statement to the Embassy.
In her report to the Home Office, Ambassador to the UAE Hjayceelyn Quintana said Dalquez expressed her profound gratitude to the Philippine Embassy for seeing to it that she would be able to return home and be reunited with her loved ones.
“Jennifer was indeed very thankful for all the assistance, the support, and most especially the prayers that she said led to the reversal of the death sentence that was meted out on her three years ago,” said Ambassador Quintana after talking to Dalquez on the phone before her flight departed for Manila.
Dalquez, 29, did not have the chance to personally thank Ambassador Quintana as she was escorted directly to the aircraft by UAE authorities.
Dalquez is returning home three years after she was found guilty and sentenced to death by an Abu Dhabi court for stabbing to death her employer in 2014 after he threatened to kill the General Santos native for refusing to have sex with him.
The Embassy, through its lawyers, immediately appealed the conviction and successfully had it overturned by a local court in 2017. Dalquez was subsequently ordered released after completing a five-year jail term for theft on 25 October.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for
Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Lou Y. Arriola also welcomed Dalquez’s release and repatriation.
“Jennifer’s acquittal underscores just how serious the Duterte Administration is in promoting the rights and protecting the welfare of our people abroad,” she said.
According to Undersecretary Arriola, the DFA exhausted all legal remedies to spare Dalquez from capital punishment.
She said the Office of Migrant Workers Affairs provided Dalquez with a lawyer since her case was heard by the Court of First Instance in March 2015. She said Embassy representatives were also present during her court hearings and visited her several times at the Al Ain Central Jail.
Undersecretary Arriola said the DFA provided Dalquez with financial assistance to cover her personal expenses while in detention and also shouldered the cost of the two compassionate visits to Abu Dhabi of her parents. It was also the DFA that shouldered the cost of her flight home.
Dalquez also received assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) with Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III providing livelihood for her parents and scholarship to her child following his visit to her in 2017. END
Ambassador Hjayceelyn Quintana talking to Dalquez on phone as Vice Consul Von Ryan Pangwi listens. (DFA Photo)
Jennifer Dalquez with Philippine Embassy Assistance to Nationals Officer Sheena Bungay on board the Philippine Airlines flight that would take her to Manila. (DFA Photo)