'Where is daddy? Miss na daddy'

MANILA, Philippines - Days after he left to work abroad, the young children of electrician Marvin Najera already missed their father.

Little did they know they would never see their father alive again. Najera died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan last Sunday.

“Where is daddy? Miss na daddy,” Najera’s wife Lulu Magat quoted her children as saying shortly after their father left for abroad.

Magat said Najera left the country as a tourist bound for Dubai although the relatives were aware that he would work as an electrician in a US-owned company in Afghanistan.

She said they are also aware that there is an existing ban on the deployment of OFWs to Afghanistan due to prevailing hostilities there.

Magat said they never thought Najera would meet his end in Afghanistan, where his father is also working as a cook for the past several years.

Najera’s elder brother Lito said his brother decided to work in Afghanistan despite the existing ban because he wanted to earn more and provide a better future for his children.

“Life here is very difficult, that is why he (Marvin) defied the ban, decided to work in Afghanistan so he could earn more for his family,” Lito said in Filipino.

Magat said she regretted allowing her husband to work in Afghanistan.

Cresenciano Mariano, the father of 22-year-old Mark Joseph Mariano who also died in the helicopter crash in Afghanistan, also felt sorry that he forced his young son to work in Afghanistan despite the ban.

The elder Mariano said a friend who has been working in Afghanistan enticed him to ask his son Joseph to work in Afghanistan where he will receive $800 a month.

Mark Joseph also left two young children and his wife Hermie.

The families of the two OFWs said all they want now is to have the bodies of the loved ones repatriated at the soonest possible time so they could see them for the last time.

The two OFWs, together with eight other Filipino workers and 11 others, died when their civilian helicopter slammed into the tarmac shortly after takeoff at Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan. – Mayen Jaymalin