Probe sought for young Pinay therapist found dead in Kansas City
A group assisting Filipino migrant workers on Thursday called on the government to look into the case of a Filipina physical therapist who was found dead in Kansas City last week reportedly from suicide.
The mother of Romina Ignacio, 25, is disputing information reaching her that her eldest daughter killed herself inside her apartment on July 18, five months after she arrived in the United States to work, according to the Blas F. Ople Policy Center.
"We call on the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice to conduct a joint inquiry to ascertain the facts given the bereaved family's suspicion that that there was foul play involved in Romina's death," said Susan Ople, the center's president, in a statement.
She said based on information reaching Ignacio's mother, Minerva, the OFW "was found by US police authorities with stab wounds in her neck and near her heart, as well as superficial wounds in the abdomen, while inside a bath tub, still wearing her clothes and flip-flops."
GMA News Online had contacted the DFA for confirmation, but it has yet to reply as of posting time.
Minerva, according to Ople, claims her daughter, with whom she communicated almost daily via Messenger or Viber, was having problems with her boss, who allegedly asked her to "do something that to her mind was illegal and against her own personal principles."
Minerva said her daughter could not have been suicidal because she was even making plans for the July 4th celebration.
Another friend, a physical therapist in Guam, said Ignacio couldn't have killed herself because she was too "intelligent not to think of such things, and she had so many aspirations in life," and that she "had a bucket list."
The center said Ignacio left for the US last March through the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), with Perpetual Help Placement Services as the deployment agency. She passed her licensure examinations in Guam, which made her eligible to work in five states in the US.
Ignacio, who will be buried on July 26, eventually found a job in a nursing facility in Kansas City. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News
The mother of Romina Ignacio, 25, is disputing information reaching her that her eldest daughter killed herself inside her apartment on July 18, five months after she arrived in the United States to work, according to the Blas F. Ople Policy Center.
"We call on the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice to conduct a joint inquiry to ascertain the facts given the bereaved family's suspicion that that there was foul play involved in Romina's death," said Susan Ople, the center's president, in a statement.
She said based on information reaching Ignacio's mother, Minerva, the OFW "was found by US police authorities with stab wounds in her neck and near her heart, as well as superficial wounds in the abdomen, while inside a bath tub, still wearing her clothes and flip-flops."
GMA News Online had contacted the DFA for confirmation, but it has yet to reply as of posting time.
Minerva, according to Ople, claims her daughter, with whom she communicated almost daily via Messenger or Viber, was having problems with her boss, who allegedly asked her to "do something that to her mind was illegal and against her own personal principles."
Minerva said her daughter could not have been suicidal because she was even making plans for the July 4th celebration.
Another friend, a physical therapist in Guam, said Ignacio couldn't have killed herself because she was too "intelligent not to think of such things, and she had so many aspirations in life," and that she "had a bucket list."
The center said Ignacio left for the US last March through the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), with Perpetual Help Placement Services as the deployment agency. She passed her licensure examinations in Guam, which made her eligible to work in five states in the US.
Ignacio, who will be buried on July 26, eventually found a job in a nursing facility in Kansas City. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News
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