Manila: The Philippine government has filed a case against a Kuwaiti whose pet lions almost devoured a Filipina maid early this month resulting in her death.

Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is also presidential assistant on overseas Filipino affairs, said a case for criminal negligence resulting in homicide had been filed by the Philippine government against the employer of an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) in Kuwait after the Filipina died from the severe mauling she had suffered from the lions.

On December 10, the lion mauling victim, Lourdes Hingco Abejuela died from the severity of wounds she had suffered.

“Consul General Raul Dado informed me they already filed a case against the employer and the Philippine embassy in Kuwait is doing everything to repatriate the body as soon as possible,” according to Binay.

“I have asked our embassy and the other agencies of government to work together so we can provide all the help to the family,” he added.

Reports reaching the Philippines said Filipina maid Abejuela was working on her laundry chores at the roof of her employer’s residence when the lion attacked her.

The cage where the lion had been kept had been left unlocked allowing the predatory feline to lunge at the Filipina and maul her.

Emergency workers were able to bring Abejuela alive to the hospital despite the wounds she had suffered as a result of the mauling, but her employers allegedly hid from authorities the fact that a lion had attacked her.

Abejuela’s left arm had been torn off by the lions and a portion of her abdomen had been devoured by the felines in a vicious attack.

Her employers told doctors at the hospital in Kuwait where she was taken that it was a dog that mauled her, but authorities suspected something was amiss because of the severity of the Filipina maid’s wounds.

Friends of the Filipina maid were also able to inform her family about the lion-mauling incident through Facebook last December 6.

Binay said that at this point, Philippine consular officials are conducting their own investigation into the incident.

Reports said two lions ganged up on the hapless Filipina household service worker and the Kuwaiti had hidden the fact that the had been maintaining lions for pets because it is illegal under the oil rich emirate’s law to keep wild animals.

A report by the ABS-CBN Middle East Bureau report said Abejuela had been working for her Kuwaiti employer for 15 years.

There are an estimated 180,000 Filipinos in Kuwait and more than half of them are employed as domestic helpers.