MANILA, Philippines—Former labor undersecretary Susan Ople appealed to the government to work on the repatriation of Jonathan Bigas, who should have been freed in August 2008 after being jailed in Saudi for driving a passenger convicted for possession of illegal drugs.

Bigas, a limousine driver, was arrested in 2007 after driving a Filipino passenger to the post office, where the passenger was picked up a package sent from Nueva Ecija which carried three grams of shabu, leading to the arrest of Bigas and his passenger.

Bigas was sentenced to a one-year jail term.

Tess Bigas, the driver’s wife, went to the DFA on October 14 and talked to a lawyer from DFA to seek assistance. “According to Atty. Flores of the DFA, while they do have funds, their priority as of now is to assist victims of maltreatment and abuse. He advised me to also look for a sponsor who will shoulder my husband’s airfare,” Bigas told Ople Center, adding that her family and friends cannot provide money to bring her husband home.

The Ople Center said it is thus appealing to the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration to shoulder the fare of Bigas.

“His company provided him with an air ticket once his jail term ended so he could fly back to Manila. For some reason, the police held on to the ticket until it expired. Now, Bigas has spent two years and four months in jail, exceeding his original sentence of one-year imprisonment. We are calling on the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine embassy to shoulder the cost of Jonathan’s air fare so he could return and be with his family here in Manila,” Ople said.

The daughter of the late Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople also called on the Philippine embassy to conduct an inventory of OFWs detained for various offenses in Saudi Arabia.

“How many OFWs are in the same situation as Bigas? How many should have been sent home but continue to languish in jail because they do not have the money to pay for their trip home? This is an injustice that deserves immediate rectification,” Ople said, noting that Bigas did not even know his passenger and was unaware of what was in the package yet he was convicted and jailed.

“The government must help him regain his freedom and come home to be with his family,” she added.

In an e-mail, Bigas sought the help of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, a non-government organization founded by the late Secretary Ople’s youngest daughter in 2004 to help distressed Filipino workers abroad.