The son of our neighbor died last January 29, 2016 in Spain. And through the goodness of the Lord was home yesterday and buried this morning.
During the wake last night, I happened to sit next to the person who worked hard to make things work so that their son will be brought home the soonest. She told me snippets of what she went through:
Bringing home the body of her kin is not without trouble. He was undocumented or illegally entered Spain to find work. But before he went to Spain, he was legally working in Norway as a nurse, and came to Spain when his permit expired.
On January 29, 2016, he died on his sleep, and was discovered by his employer. The employer informed the girlfriend of the boy who in turn informed his family here in the Philippines. Now, the big question was, “How can they get his body from abroad and bring it home?”
She was tasked to do the work.
Of course, this event is an unfortunate one that it only happened, God forbid, once in our life. So, having no idea “How” she thought of the most obvious agencies of the government who might be able to help or give advice on what to do – and first to mind was the OWWA.
She went immediately to OWWA office in Baguio City to inquire. To her dismay, instead of getting a professional answer, all she got was a very discouraging one. The director said, “They have nothing to do with the case because the subject was undocumented” – period.
Wow, that’s something. It was a plain ill-mannered way to handle an obvious problem of Kababayans asking for advice how to solve it; that the ones whom you expect to lean on gave you a cold shoulder!”
The family member who told me her story said the OWWA seemed to suspect everyone who goes to their office is only asking for money assistance. She said, “Okay, let us say I went to ask if they can provide financial assistance but since the law says the government cannot provide because of his being undocumented, will these people at least have the heart to tell me what best to be done in order to bring home the body of our son? Can she not at least recommend other offices who are working in cases like this? I believe this is not their first time to experience people erroneously coming to their office for help.”
Imagine yourself being the one who went there to ask for help and got nothing more than just the word “We cannot help because your son is undocumented!” How do you feel?
Anyway, God is great! He guided this mother, who did not let her anger get the best of her, to think what is the next step to be done. The next thing, with a companion, they went to DFA Manila and there they were given assistance and connected to people whom they should approach.
She continued, “We are lucky and glory to God who made things easier. I said, “Lucky” because while being in the DFA Manila there was one parent with her companions (probably family members) crying in front of the information for help because they have been waiting for more than six months for the body of their family member to come home."
Yah, we can have the comfort that our neighbor’s son is finally put to rest after a month of emotional waiting. A large amount of money was spent (From 20K euro down to 7K euro) to bring home the body and though this amount hurts it can only hurt the pocket. But the pain caused by insensitive people being paid by our taxes to help us in times of needs like this one is more painful and will not easily be forgotten.
Anyway, we pray and hope, they will learn and next time they’ll be ready to help even those ones considered undocumented as they call them. May they realize that while those OFWs are undocumented they are working so hard and are sending their hard earned money home; In return, is helping our country’s economy.
Lastly, let us pray that those families of OFWs will not have to go through months and even years of waiting for the bodies of their love ones who were unfortunate while away whether legally deployed, became illegal, or used the backdoor because the front door was so full of red tape.
