Kin of Pinay killed in Kabul seeks repatriation of remains

BAGUIO CITY – Relatives of Filipino physical therapist Zennia Aguilan, who was killed together with three others during a bombing at a hotel last Monday in Kabul, Afghanistan, appealed to the government yesterday to help facilitate the return of the victim’s remains to the Philippines.

Aguilan’s European employer who owns the Spa Resources International where the Filipino victim worked, had called up the victim’s mother Herminia in their hometown in Sagada, Mountain Province. The employer promised that the remains of the victim will be in Sagada within four days, said Shirley Lebeng, Aguilan’s cousin.

Lebeng said Aguilan took up a physical therapy course in Dagupan City and also worked in Taiwan in 2004.

She said Aguilan was adventurous and daring. After working in Taiwan she went to Dubai in 2006 and later found a job in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she was employed as a spa therapist at the five-star Serena Hotel.

“She is qualified for a P220,000 insurance from the government,” said Isaac Anthony Basil, security and protection department chief of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) where Lebeng sought assistance yesterday morning after also requesting help from the Baguio City Public Employment Services Office (PESO).

Lebeng said her cousin went to Afghanistan on Aug. 16, 2007. OWWA records showed that Aguilan had a one-year contract with a salary of $700 a month.

Basil said the only problem now regarding the immediate repatriation of the victim is that the Philippines has no embassy in Kabul, which could pose difficulties because there are no Filipino government representatives to attend to Aguilan. The nearest Filipino diplomatic post is in Pakistan.         – With Pia Lee-Brago