10.
In Jeddah, a SAUDIA legal officer brought plaintiff to the same Saudi
court on June 27, 1993. Nothing happened then but on June 28, 1993, a Saudi
judge interrogated plaintiff through an interpreter about the Jakarta incident.
After one hour of interrogation, they let her go. At the airport, however, just as
her plane was about to take off, a SAUDIA officer told her that the airline had
forbidden her to take that flight. At the Inflight Service Office where she was
told to go, the secretary of Mr. Yahya Saddick took away her passport and told
her to remain in Jeddah, at the crew quarters, until further orders.
11.
On July 3, 1993 a SAUDIA legal officer again escorted plaintiff to the
same court where the judge, to her astonishment and shock, rendered a
decision, translated to her in English, sentencing her to five months
imprisonment and to 286 lashes. Only then did she realize that the Saudi court
had tried her, together with Thamer and Allah, for what happened in Jakarta.
The court found plaintiff guilty of (1) adultery; (2) going to a disco, dancing, and
listening to the music in violation of Islamic laws; (3) socializing with the male
crew, in contravention of Islamic tradition.
12.
Because SAUDIA refused to lend her a hand in the case, plaintiff
sought the help of the Philippine Embassy in Jeddah. The latter helped her
pursue an appeal from the decision of the court. To pay for her upkeep, she
worked on the domestic flights of defendant SAUDIA while, ironically, Thamer
and Allah freely served the international flights.xxxix[39]
Where the factual antecedents satisfactorily establish the existence of a foreign
element, we agree with petitioner that the problem herein could present a conflicts case.
A factual situation that cuts across territorial lines and is affected by the diverse laws of
two or more states is said to contain a foreign element. The presence of a foreign
element is inevitable since social and economic affairs of individuals and associations
are rarely confined to the geographic limits of their birth or conception.xl[40]
The forms in which this foreign element may appear are many.xli[41] The foreign element
may simply consist in the fact that one of the parties to a contract is an alien or has a
foreign domicile, or that a contract between nationals of one State involves properties
situated in another State. In other cases, the foreign element may assume a complex
form.xlii[42]
In the instant case, the foreign element consisted in the fact that private respondent
Morada is a resident Philippine national, and that petitioner SAUDIA is a resident
foreign corporation. Also, by virtue of the employment of Morada with the petitioner
Saudia as a flight stewardess, events did transpire during her many occasions of travel
across national borders, particularly from Manila, Philippines to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia,
and vice versa, that caused a conflicts situation to arise.