Remains of OFW killed in Turkey quake now home

MANILA, Philippines — The remains of Wilma Abulad Tezcan, who was among those killed in a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Turkey’s Antakya City last Feb. 5, arrived late Wednesday night at the Pair Cargo warehouse on a Turkish Airways flight.

Only her daughter Nicole accompanied her return to Manila as her Turkish husband Gurol Tezcan lost his passport during the earthquake. Tezcan is scheduled to arrive tomorrow after securing a new passport.

Wilma’s remains, placed in a metal box that is contained in a coffin, were brought to Lucena City for the wake. However, this will remain sealed until her burial following a Muslim ritual.

Her father William Abulad, who met her remains together with other government officials at the airport, said “Ako po ay lubos na natutuwa kahit siya ay nasa kabilang buhay ay makakarating sa amin lugar sa Ilayang Dupay at doon naming ililibing malapit sa amin (I am very grateful that even when she is already in the afterlife, she will still arrive in our place in Ilayang Dupay and there we will bury her near to us).”

The grieving Nicole narrated how they were able to find her mother after the earthquake.

“My stepfather sent a message saying he could not contact my mother. We immediately traveled to Hatay, Antakya for 15 hours to help find her alive. But we failed,” she said in Filipino.

The remains of the other Filipina who died in the earthquake were already buried in Turkey as per request of her Turkish husband.

There are at least 4,000 Filipinos living and working in Turkey, mostly in Istanbul and the northwest part of the country.

Meanwhile, the labor group Migrante International wants the government to adopt additional measures in protecting overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in Kuwait.

Migrante chair Joanna Concepcion said the government, especially the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), should go beyond just sending a fact-finding team to the Middle Eastern country to investigate the brutal killing of Filipina domestic helper Jullebee Ranara.

“Sending a fact-finding team to Kuwait to investigate only when a high-profile case of an OFW death occurs is part of the problem and in fact demonstrates that government agencies and officials mandated to uphold and protect the rights of our OFW have been passive in responding to cases of rights violations among our OFW,” Concepcion said, noting that a surge in contract violations since 2017 should have alarmed the government.

“The increasing numbers should already sound the alarm that the conditions of our OFWs in Kuwait are worsening and that policies of government to protect them have not been effective. Decisive government action should have been done to address these weaknesses,” she added.

She questioned why there are no regular investigations concerning the rising contract violations and improvement in internal policies as she noted that regular monitoring is a primary responsibility of the government and not of recruitment agencies.

“Monitoring can be done by implementing systems to make it easier for OFWs or their families to report violations and receive immediate and comprehensive assistance,” Concepcion stressed.

OFWs who experience violations of their rights and dignity must have access to justice mechanisms both in the host country and in the Philippines, she added. –  Michelle Zoleta, Mayen Jaymalin