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Ex-contract worker Balabagan to hold concert on Saipan
Balabagan
Church 360 will be holding a free concert by Sara Balabagan this coming Saturday, July 30, 2016 at Marianas Business Plaza starting 6pm. Balabagan will be performing her songs and will be talking about her life story.
Balabagan was an overseas contact worker, or OCW, that worked in the United Arab Emirates. She grew up in Maguindanao, Philippines. On July 1994, she killed her employer by stabbing him 34 times. Balabagan said it was an act of self-defense because her employer attempted to rape her. She was found guilty of manslaughter and a rape victim on June 1995. She was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment and was asked to pay the employers family.
In September 1995, an Islamic court found no evidence of her being raped and was sentenced with premeditated murder and was sentenced to death by firing squad. This resulted in an international outcry as her trial was seen as an emblem of inadequate treatment of domestic helpers.
After her third trial the employer’s family chose to drop the lawsuit presented to her and her punishment was lessened to a year and 100 blows of a cane along with payment of blood money. She later returned to the Philippines and her life story was made into a movie. Balabagan is now a singer and entertainer in the Philippines.
Balabagan will also perform for Core Tech employees in Guam on July 29 and at Calvary Baptist Church in Tamuning, Guam on July 31. The Saipan concert will be free to the public at the Nauru Loop in Susupe. (Mackenzie Perez)
