DUBAI // The father of a Filipina jailed for seven months before she was acquitted of drug-related charges yesterday said her experience offered a cautionary tale for other expatriates to be wary of who they befriend.
Cresilda Empleo, 25, and a co-defendant, Jackie Lou Javate Bacani, 31, were both acquitted of criminal complicity in Dubai Misdemeanours Court.
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A third defendant, Rhodora Guisinga, 36, who is also from the Philippines, was found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison and deportation.
"Cresilda would like to continue working in the UAE to support her children back home," said Athelo Empleo, a 51-year-old foreman who lives in Saudi Arabia.
"The only advice I could give her and the others is not to be too trusting and be wary of strangers they meet."
In April Mr Empleo called on the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila to provide a UAE-based lawyer to defend his daughter. Yuri Cipriano, the chairman of Migrante, a migrant-rights group who attended the hearing yesterday, thanked the consulate for hiring a lawyer to defend the women.
"Their acquittal underscores the need for our government to provide free legal assistance to ensure that Filipino migrants have access to justice," he said.
All three women had been in custody in Dubai's Muraqqabat police station since November 10, when they were arrested inside Hamarain Mall after Guisinga was found with a bag containing Tramadol, an opiate-based painkiller. She was charged with possession, while the two other women were charged as accessories.
An unidentified friend had driven them to the mall, according to an April 20 report from two Philippine consular officials who visited the women in jail.
Mrs Bacani's mother, Gloria Javate, who works as a seamstress in Saudi Arabia, wants her daughter - who gave birth to a baby boy in March while still in jail - to return home and rest.
"I'd like to see her and my grandson," she said. "But my work prevents me from travelling to Dubai at this time."
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