By SAMMY JULIAN
Manila News Bureau Chief
MANILA — With dignity and respect.
This was how the remains of the overseas Filipino worker (OFW), who was abducted and reportedly beheaded by suspected militants in Benghazi in July, were handled during their repatriation to Manila over the weekend, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said.
The DFA issued this assurance amid reports that the body of Antonio Espares was left at the hospital morgue in Benghazi covered in mud, wrapped in a garbage bag and placed inside a wooden box.
Espares’ remains were repatriated via land route from Tripoli, arriving in Tunisia late this week, before being boarded on a commercial flight destined for Manila. Emirates Airlines flight EK334 arrived at 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 30 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
DFA spokesperson Charles Jose said in a press briefing that the assigned doctors ensured that the body of Espares was stored properly despite the lack of hospital supplies.
Likewise, representatives from the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli and the Rapid Response Team (RRT) went to the hospital in Benghazi to personally identify the remains.
They reported that all the bodies in the morgue, including that of the Filipino victim, were covered with white blankets, the custom in Arab countries, said Jose.
“(I’m) not sure if the description was accurate with regards to the kind of plastic used, but we have to also understand the situation in Libya,” said Jose. “There’s a civil war going on. Hospitals are all short in medical supplies. They would not be able to do all the treatment they were supposed to do under normal circumstances. This is the situation.”
The Filipino victim is also entitled with his unpaid salary from June to July, said Jose. The employer will also donate $2,000 to the family of the deceased.
If Espares is an active member of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Jose said, he should also be entitled to insurance
“So far, based on the results of the coordination efforts with the employer, these are the only entitlements of the victim: unpaid salary and the donation,” he said. “The company paid for the repatriation and the salaries until November 2015 based on his work contract, but let us see if there are other benefits due him.”
Based on information gathered by the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli, Espares was with other foreign nationals, an Indian and Pakistani, on July 15 when they were stopped at a checkpoint in Benghazi by armed militias.
Espares was allegedly singled out because he was non-Muslim, the DFA said.
The Filipino’s kidnappers initially demanded a $160,000 ransom (roughly P6.9 million). However, the body of the Filipino was discovered at a hospital four days later.
This was the first time that a Filipino was killed since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, prompting the Philippine government to elevate the alert level in that North African nation to mandatory evacuation./PN
