Saudi- Hospital releases Filipino worker after six months

(MENAFN- Arab News) A Filipino worker who was being treated in hospital for nearly six months in the Kingdom has been released with the Philippine government paying for his medical bills.

According to the Philippine Embassy McCormick Rabina who was released from the hospital on Nov. 9 has received accommodation from the embassy in Riyadh while he waits to be transported back to the Philippines.

'The embassy is in constant communication with the hospital on the case' according to an email from Philippine Ambassador Ezzedin Tago.

However since his admission to the hospital Rabina has retracted his initial claim that he had been gang-raped in an event that led to his hospitalization. The hospital's medical reports also do not indicate any such thing occurred according to an official embassy statement. There was no mention of the hospital in the statement.

The statement also made mention of Rabina's retraction but advised Filipinos in the kingdom to take precautions just the same.

"The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh urges all Filipinos in the Kingdom to take precautions and exercise good judgment in their movements and who they meet on their private time in order to ensure their safety and to avoid risky life-threatening and dangerous situations" it said.

Rabina visited Ambassador Tago and expressed his thanks and gratitude to embassy and to those who aided him in his recovery at the hospital.

Arab News was the first news agency to bring Rabina's plight into the public eye after he was left in a difficult situation while his medical bill was soaring.

Recently a member of the Senate in the Philippines urged Department of Foreign Affairs to use all possible diplomatic means to free Rabina and to help other Filipino workers particularly women by offering them care and shelter at the Philippine Embassy.