MANILA Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) said the Filipina domestic worker, who was killed by her own employers in Kuwait, was also sexually abused, based on an autopsy.

In a message to reporters, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Jeanelyn Villavende’s body had “clear indications of sexual abuse”, following the result of an autopsy conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation on her remains on January 10 in her hometown of Cotabato.

Guevara added that old healed wounds were also discovered on Villavende’s body, indicating that she had been battered for weeks before she died.

“There were also old healed wounds indicating that Villavende had been battered weeks prior to the fateful incident,” said Guevarra, who is expected to receive a formal report from the NBI today (Monday).

Based on the initial autopsy of Villavende’s body conducted by a Kuwaiti hospital, the domestic worker’s cause of death was due to heart and lungs failure brought by “shock and multiple injuries vascular nervous system [sic].”

The Department of Labor and Employment and the Bureau of Immigration have started implementing a partial deployment ban of newly-hired domestic workers to Kuwait following Villavende’s death, which happened five months after she left the Philippines to work.

President Rodrigo Duterte, for his part, said he will not implement a ban on the deployment of workers to Kuwait despite the incident.

Reason for this, the President explained, justice was immediately carried out in behalf of the Filipina victim.

“The situation is quite different. We do not see apathy there. And the police authorities there in Kuwait acted swiftly, and they have arrested the spouses,” he said in a television interview. (Gerald Alayon/JGo/Currentph.com)