ILOILO – The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) urged the South Korean government to speed up the investigation on the death of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi province.
In a resolution, the SP also pressed South Korea to render “justice to those behind the senseless killing of Angelo Claveria of Cabatuan, Iloilo.”
SP member Emmanuel Gallar sponsored the resolution. He and Claveria, 34, came from the same municipality – Cabatuan.
The SP approved the resolution on May 15. Copies of it would be sent to South Korean ambassador Han Dong-man, Office of the President, Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, among others.
Claveria, a factory worker, went missing in South Korea in 2016. His skeletal remains were recovered in a septic tank of a water purifier plant in Hwaseong City last month.
DNA samples from the skeletons matched with those of Claveria’s mother.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) consular office in Iloilo City, the South Korean police suspected this to be a murder case and an OFW had been tagged a person of interest.
Claveria may have been hit on the head with a hard object, according to the initial information reaching DFA.
Claveria, a Marine Transportation graduate, left for South Korea in July 2014 to work as a metal cutter.
The family’s last contact with Claveria was in December 2015. But it was only this Feb. 20, 2018 that they sought DFA’s help. That same month, a missing Ilongga domestic helper in Kuwait was found dead. Joanna Demafelis of Sara, Iloilo was beaten to death then stuffed in the freezer by her employers, a Libyan-Syrian couple.
“South Korean authorities are handling the investigation. Once the culprit has been identified, they will coordinate with Interpol and the Philippine National Police because allegedly, the suspect, a Filipino national, already returned to the Philippines,” said DFA regional consular office’s officer-in-charge Anita F. Saldo.
Philippine Ambassador to South Korea Raul Hernandez said the South Korean police were still collecting more evidence that would firm up its suspicion against their prime suspect.
“Ayaw magsabi ng pulis (sa Philippine embassy) kung ano ang mga ebidensya pero mukhang kaibigan, magkaibigan sila…magkakilala sila,” said Hernandez who decline to identify the suspect.
“The Philippine embassy is not releasing the identity of the prime suspect so as not to preempt the ongoing investigation of the South Korean police,” he added. “The South Korean authorities believe that the suspect is already in the Philippines.”/PN
