Palace vows to do everything it can for 14 Pinoys killed in Iraq fire

Malacañang on Saturday vowed to do everything it possibly can for the 14 Filipino workers who died in a hotel fire in Iraq on Friday evening.
"Ang Department of Foreign Affairs ay nag-dispatch na ng tauhan para mapuntahan ang lugar at gawin ang lahat ng ating magagawa para doon sa mga biktima," Presidential Communications Undersecretary Manolo Quezon III said on dzRB radio.
Also, Quezon said the government through the DFA, would work for the repatriation of the victims' remains.
"We are very sad about this. It’s a terrible way to die. Marami sila and it was, I believe, in a massage center. And so we would like to, of course, get more details and do everything that is possible to bring our countrymen home and, of course, to look at every possibility to assist their families at this time of sadness and need," Quezon added.
Fourteen Filipinos were among the 17 people killed in a fire that struck a hotel in Erbil, capital of the Kurdistan region on Friday evening.
Elmer Cato, charge d’affaires of the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad relayed the information about the tragedy in a statement posted on his Facebook account.
“We will be taking the earliest flight tomorrow (Saturday) to allow us to coordinate closely with authorities of the Kurdistan Regional Government in identifying and repatriating the remains of our kababayans,” Cato said.
The incident, he said, is now under investigation. — LBG, GMA News

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