Sarah Balabagan has won fame and fortune because of her pain and suffering. Her extraordinary experience, which has caught nationwide attention and sympathy, is the stuff movies are - and no doubt will be - made of. Ms Balabagan plans to enrol in a Manila school to finish her secondary education and then take up law. But she need not work again for a long time. A French group has raised one million pesos (HK$295,000) to help her pursue her studies, and a similar amount has been donated by a Filipino businessman 'so she will not have to work abroad again'. Such pledges have come from other groups. And as in the Flor Contemplacion case, a movie is in the offing. The Flor Contemplacion Story, about the Filipino maid hanged in Singapore, was a box office smash. Miss Balabagan's father, Karim, said yesterday several Philippine movie companies had approached him about film rights, but the family was leaving the decision up to her.
