MANILA, Philippines — Filipino maid Jeanelyn Villavende was raped before she was killed in Kuwait last month by her employers, according to the autopsy conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation.
The NBI autopsy also showed that the 26-year-old from Norala, South Cotabato, who began working as a maid in Kuwait only five months ago, had suffered from past beatings.
“There were clear indications of sexual abuse. There were also old healed wounds indicating that Villavende had been battered weeks prior to the fateful incident,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told reporters on Sunday.
The autopsy was conducted by NBI medicolegal chief Ricardo Rodaje on Jan. 10 near Villavende’s home in Norala.
Appeal for justice
The autopsy report will be submitted to Guevarra on Monday.
Villavende’s remains arrived in Manila on Friday.
Villavende’s family appealed anew to President Duterte and Kuwaiti officials for justice after learning the results of the autopsy.
“We demand justice,” said Nelly Padernal, 42, Villavende’s stepmother. She said she had yet to see pictures of her stepdaughter’s employers in jail.
The Kuwaiti government’s autopsy report did not mention signs of rape or past abuse, angering the workers’ group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), which demanded the government respond strongly to the submission of what it called “fake autopsy report.”
“We strongly condemn this . . . fake autopsy report submitted by the Kuwaiti [authorities] to the Philippine government,” TUCP Rep. Raymond Mendoza said in a statement on Sunday.
He said the incomplete report showed “a willful dishonest attempt of the Kuwaiti government to cover up the heinous crime” committed by Kuwaiti nationals and “whitewash the gruesome act of inhumanity.”
Source: globalnation.inquirer.net, Dona Z. Pazzibugan, January 13, 2020
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