Binay, OWWA assure assistance to kin of Pinoys slain in Algeria hostage crisis


Vice President Jejomar Binay on Tuesday assured relatives of overseas Filipino workers killed in a recent hostage crisis in Algeria of the government's help in bringing their remains home soonest.
Binay, the presidential adviser on OFW concerns, also assured them his office will coordinate with the government agencies concerned to make sure the benefits due the OFWs—from medical and burial assistance to scholarships for dependents—go to their loved ones.
“We also have to ensure that the employers of the OFWs will shoulder all repatriation expenses and release all unpaid salaries due our workers,” Binay said on his Facebook page.
Help for repatriation
On Monday afternoon, the wife of one of the OFWs killed in the hostage crisis met with Binay at the Coconut Palace, the Office of the Vice President said.
During the meeting, she sought Binay's help in ensuring that her husband's remains be properly identified and brought home.
She added she was informed of her husband's death by her husband’s employer and the Department of Foreign Affairs on Sunday.
“They told me he was one of those who died in a bus that was rigged by militants with bombs. If he really died in the blast, chances are his body was dismembered. And if so, then how was he identified?” she said.
“We’ve already accepted my husband’s fate. What we just want is to make sure that it will be my husband that will be brought home,” she added.
For his part, Binay assured the wife the government is using “the most accurate methods of identification possible including dental records and DNA testing because we do not want to have a repeat of misidentified bodies being brought home.”
In 2012, the remains of a Syrian national was mistaken to be that of an OFW who died in a gas tanker explosion in Riyadh.
OWWA: Most affected OFWs are registered with us
In an interview on dzBB radio, OWWA administrator Carmelita Dimzon said she does not expect problems in giving benefits to most of the OFWs affected in the crisis.
Dimzon said most of these Filipinos are registered members of OWWA.
"Karamihan sa kanila documented member ng OWWA maliban sa iilan wala kaming record. Madali sila ma-trace, mahanap at mabigyan ang kaukulang assistance," she said.
She said the slain OFWs' kin can avail of P220,000 in death benefits, with one child getting a scholarship and the spouse getting a livelihood assistance package. —KG, GMA News

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