Elayan Kris Allafi and his wife.

A 31-year-old Filipino, Elayan Kris Allafi or “Olayan Al-Afi,” does not know that he bears a Saudi name given by her mother. It was to cherish the memory of her Saudi husband who he claimed abandoned her in Riyadh.

According to him, his mother met her father in Manila in 1983-84 through a Filipino friend, who was a business partner of his father. He has been searching for his father for 15 years, he said.

“I retained my official name with the hope to see him again, although the Filipino community does not have such a name. Yet, everybody knows my status there as an “Arabian son”.

Allafi, already married, told Arab News that he has been searching for his father when he 17 or 18 years old, and reported the case to the Saudi Embassy in Manila. He has been contacting the embassy off and on but to no avail. “I was told to wait for their call,” he said.

Allafi also visited the Saudi Embassy in Malaysia, where he is now working with all the details. In the absence of any response from his father, he has now switched over to the social networking media, hoping to trace his father.

“I am a Philippines’ citizen, my father left us during my mother’s pregnancy and never came back again. I’ve never seen him and am really very keen to meet him,” said Allafi in his letter to Arab News.

He said, he was raised by Christians and has since embraced Islam in 2005 in Malaysia. “The only evidence I have is my father’s “love letter” to my mother with his full name from Riyadh. I am willing to go for DNA testing if required,” he said.

“I named my two children after my Saudi father — Elayan Rasheed Allafi and Zainah Hadiyyah Allafi — to keep his name alive in our memory. Please help me see my father. I am willing to go through every process,” he said.

The Filipino man has been trying to trace his missing father for the last 15 years. As a last resort, he has sought help from Arab News hoping that his dad would one day see ‘sonrise’ and realize what he had been missing for decades.

He is willing to provide photos, old letters and addresses through Arab News to those who could help him.

“I am confident to see my father some day, so that I can visit the Two Holy Mosques with my wife to perform Umrah,” he said from Malaysia.

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