CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The remains of 10 Filipinos including four Kapampangans killed in a helicopter crash in a NATO camp in southern Afghanistan on Sunday are being brought home and may arrive by early Friday.
Evelyn Najera, a mother of one of the victims, said she received this assurance from Vice President Noli de Castro and Labor Secretary Marianito Roque in a meeting at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration on Wednesday.
Her son, Marvin, was among the fatalities.
REMAINS IN KUWAIT NOW
“We were told the remains are now in Kuwait, Evelyn said by phone.
Marvin, who hailed from the City of San Fernando, would have turned 34 last Tuesday.
Herminigilda Mariano, wife of Mark Joseph, was also in the same meeting and got the same assurance. Mark Joseph is 33 years old and left two young sons.
The relatives of two more Kapampangans—Noli Visda of Lubao and Leopoldo Jimenez Jr., both from Lubao—have been located by the OWWA and may meet with De Castro and Roque later in day or Thursday, according to OWWA Central Luzon director Mamerto Mercado Jr.
The other fatalities were Celso Q. Caralde of Misamis Oriental, Ely Cariño of Camarines Sur, Ernesto De Vega of Cavite, Manolito Hornilla of Batangas, Rene Taboclaon of Cagayan de Oro City and Recardo Vallejos of Surigao del Sur, according to a list released by the Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday night.
‘UNDOCUMENTED’
Mercado said Najera, Mariano, Visda and Jimenez were all ‘undocumented workers,” meaning they entered and found work in Afghanistan via Dubai.
Evelyn said her husband Eduardo who was with Marvin in the camp minutes before the crash was due home at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
According to her, their relatives in Iraq pooled money to pay for Eduardo’s fare.
Evelyn and Hermie set aside grief to be able to meet government officials and appeal for the immediate repatriation of their remains.
According her, De Castro assured her that an investigation was going to be done on who might have possibly recruited the Filipinos to work in Afghanistan despite a ban on the deployment of Filipino workers there amid the hostilities.
Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo said two men known only by their last names –Manalastas and Balagtas—helped the workers find work in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, Evelyn was a picture of grief.
Why must this happen? He only went abroad to find work. Why must he die there?”
She repeatedly uttered those questions to herself, crying almost nonstop over the loss of Marvin, her eldest son.
“Everyday, I prayed to God to protect Bogs [Marvin]. God did not hear my prayers,” the 60-year-old mother wailed.
At one point, while slumped in a rundown chair, she worried over the mental state of her Eduardo who, she said, met their son in the same NATO camp before their son and his companions were flown off to their place of work, a US military base also in Afghanistan.
“[Eduardo] has not stopped crying since we talked on the phone [on Monday night]. He said he saw the helicopter explode while in the air. He said he also heard [exchanges of] gunfire near the camp before the crash,” Evelyn related.
Reached by Punto by phone, Eduardo cried most of the time, airing only appeals for help that he and his son’s remains could be home soon.
“I don’t have money here. I haven’t started work yet,” Eduardo said, sobbing. Plane fare costs about P60,000.
Lulu, the wife of Marvin, said she does not have the money either to bring the remains home.
GOING ON THEIR OWN
According to Evelyn and Herminigilda, Marvin and Mark found work in Afghanistan by entering first Dubai as tourists.
From there, they scouted for jobs either in Iraq or Afghanistan through relatives or Filipino contacts, according to Louina Macalino, Marvin’s aunt, who is back home for a short vacation. Eduardo, 58, used the same tack, leaving ahead of Marvin by three months.
“They come even if it’s dangerous to work there because of the hostilities. They brave the dangers because there are no jobs in our country,” Macalino related.
Evelyn and Herminigilda did not know the names of the employers of their kin. The DFA identified the employer as AIM Group Inc, a US-based construction company.
Marvin, who left for Dubai on July 5, got a job in Afghanistan as an electrician. Mark, who went to Dubai on July 4, was hired as a laborer. They were promised salaries of $800 to $1,000 monthly, the women said.
The crash happened less than a week before Marvin and Mark reached the NATO camp, they said.
The tragedy left their widows groping.
“I don’t how to raise our two boys on my own,” said Herminigilda, 22.
Lulu said she does not have the means to care for their four-year-old son because they pawned the small plot of land they own for her husband’s plane fare.
KAPAMPANGANS
Marvin and Mark comprised the sixth batch of Kapampangan workers killed in war-torn countries since 2002.
Reynaldo Torres was shot dead in April 2005 while off-duty as a security guard and driver in a US camp in Baghdad, Iraq. Raymond Natividad was killed when Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq was shelled on May 11, 2004. Feliciano Dizon III was killed when insurgents stormed a hotel in Al-khobar, Saudi Arabia on May 29, 2004; US Army Sgt. Keith Fortune perished when a bomb was thrown on their truck entering Iraq on Oct. 29, 2004. Adelaida Cunanan was torn to pieces when a bomb strapped on a human body exploded in a train that she rode on the way to work in 2002.
Evelyn Najera, a mother of one of the victims, said she received this assurance from Vice President Noli de Castro and Labor Secretary Marianito Roque in a meeting at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration on Wednesday.
Her son, Marvin, was among the fatalities.
REMAINS IN KUWAIT NOW
“We were told the remains are now in Kuwait, Evelyn said by phone.
Marvin, who hailed from the City of San Fernando, would have turned 34 last Tuesday.
Herminigilda Mariano, wife of Mark Joseph, was also in the same meeting and got the same assurance. Mark Joseph is 33 years old and left two young sons.
The relatives of two more Kapampangans—Noli Visda of Lubao and Leopoldo Jimenez Jr., both from Lubao—have been located by the OWWA and may meet with De Castro and Roque later in day or Thursday, according to OWWA Central Luzon director Mamerto Mercado Jr.
The other fatalities were Celso Q. Caralde of Misamis Oriental, Ely Cariño of Camarines Sur, Ernesto De Vega of Cavite, Manolito Hornilla of Batangas, Rene Taboclaon of Cagayan de Oro City and Recardo Vallejos of Surigao del Sur, according to a list released by the Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday night.
‘UNDOCUMENTED’
Mercado said Najera, Mariano, Visda and Jimenez were all ‘undocumented workers,” meaning they entered and found work in Afghanistan via Dubai.
Evelyn said her husband Eduardo who was with Marvin in the camp minutes before the crash was due home at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
According to her, their relatives in Iraq pooled money to pay for Eduardo’s fare.
Evelyn and Hermie set aside grief to be able to meet government officials and appeal for the immediate repatriation of their remains.
According her, De Castro assured her that an investigation was going to be done on who might have possibly recruited the Filipinos to work in Afghanistan despite a ban on the deployment of Filipino workers there amid the hostilities.
Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo said two men known only by their last names –Manalastas and Balagtas—helped the workers find work in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, Evelyn was a picture of grief.
Why must this happen? He only went abroad to find work. Why must he die there?”
She repeatedly uttered those questions to herself, crying almost nonstop over the loss of Marvin, her eldest son.
“Everyday, I prayed to God to protect Bogs [Marvin]. God did not hear my prayers,” the 60-year-old mother wailed.
At one point, while slumped in a rundown chair, she worried over the mental state of her Eduardo who, she said, met their son in the same NATO camp before their son and his companions were flown off to their place of work, a US military base also in Afghanistan.
“[Eduardo] has not stopped crying since we talked on the phone [on Monday night]. He said he saw the helicopter explode while in the air. He said he also heard [exchanges of] gunfire near the camp before the crash,” Evelyn related.
Reached by Punto by phone, Eduardo cried most of the time, airing only appeals for help that he and his son’s remains could be home soon.
“I don’t have money here. I haven’t started work yet,” Eduardo said, sobbing. Plane fare costs about P60,000.
Lulu, the wife of Marvin, said she does not have the money either to bring the remains home.
GOING ON THEIR OWN
According to Evelyn and Herminigilda, Marvin and Mark found work in Afghanistan by entering first Dubai as tourists.
From there, they scouted for jobs either in Iraq or Afghanistan through relatives or Filipino contacts, according to Louina Macalino, Marvin’s aunt, who is back home for a short vacation. Eduardo, 58, used the same tack, leaving ahead of Marvin by three months.
“They come even if it’s dangerous to work there because of the hostilities. They brave the dangers because there are no jobs in our country,” Macalino related.
Evelyn and Herminigilda did not know the names of the employers of their kin. The DFA identified the employer as AIM Group Inc, a US-based construction company.
Marvin, who left for Dubai on July 5, got a job in Afghanistan as an electrician. Mark, who went to Dubai on July 4, was hired as a laborer. They were promised salaries of $800 to $1,000 monthly, the women said.
The crash happened less than a week before Marvin and Mark reached the NATO camp, they said.
The tragedy left their widows groping.
“I don’t how to raise our two boys on my own,” said Herminigilda, 22.
Lulu said she does not have the means to care for their four-year-old son because they pawned the small plot of land they own for her husband’s plane fare.
KAPAMPANGANS
Marvin and Mark comprised the sixth batch of Kapampangan workers killed in war-torn countries since 2002.
Reynaldo Torres was shot dead in April 2005 while off-duty as a security guard and driver in a US camp in Baghdad, Iraq. Raymond Natividad was killed when Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq was shelled on May 11, 2004. Feliciano Dizon III was killed when insurgents stormed a hotel in Al-khobar, Saudi Arabia on May 29, 2004; US Army Sgt. Keith Fortune perished when a bomb was thrown on their truck entering Iraq on Oct. 29, 2004. Adelaida Cunanan was torn to pieces when a bomb strapped on a human body exploded in a train that she rode on the way to work in 2002.
