EDITORIAL — Whether living or dead

Because of human error, every once in a while people get something that isn’t meant for them, like getting the wrong item following an online purchase, or being served the wrong food in a restaurant, etc.

But imagine receiving the wrong body when you are preparing to lay a loved one to rest.

This was what happened to the family of Overseas Filipino Worker Jenny Alvarado who allegedly died of coal suffocation in Kuwait last December.

The already-grieving family was given even more to grieve about when the body that was repatriated and then handed over to them earlier this month wasn’t of Alvarado but a foreigner.

“Hindi si mama ‘yan!” one of her children could be heard saying in a video aired over ANC.

Apparently, two other foreign workers in Kuwait, both Nepalese, also died of coal suffocation.

Just imagine the additional stress and apprehension that have been further heaped upon an already-grieving family preparing to bury a loved one who died under suspicious circumstances.

So the question now is where is the body of Alvarado? Is it now in Nepal in place of this assumed Nepalese fatality mistakenly shipped here, or is it still in Kuwait?

We cannot yet pinpoint who is at fault here, whether it is the Kuwaiti mortuary workers, the Kuwait Government, or even our own Department of Foreign Affairs. But one thing sure is that because someone didn’t bother to check, two corpses got switched. One of them got a trip halfway around the world into the hands of another family; the other is yet unaccounted for.

Let’s hope that this is an isolated case and the result of an honest mistake, and not more examples of how foreigners treat our compatriots. Because if it’s the latter then that would mean they have no respect for Filipinos at all, whether they are living or dead.