Missing Filipino boy among fatalities in Barcelona incident —DFA

FILE PHOTO/ DFA Logo (PNA photo)

MANILA — A seven-year-old Filipino boy earlier reported missing was among the 14 fatalities in terrorist attack in Barcelona, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Monday.

“It pains us to break the sad news to our kababayans that we lost one of our own in the recent violence unleashed by extremists against the innocent in Barcelona,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano said in a statement.

“We join the loved ones of our little brother in mourning his passing and in praying for the eternal repose of his soul,” he said.

According to Chargé d’Affaires Emmanuel Fernandez, the Philippine Embassy in Madrid was informed of the boy’s demise by his family after his father positively identified his remains.

Cayetano directed Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola to make sure that all possible assistance is extended to the family of the deceased and other Filipino victims of the incident.

Thursday’s terror attack in Barcelona also seriously injured the boy’s mother and more than 100 others.

In his report to Manila, Chargé d’ Affaires Fernandez said the victim’s 43-year-old mother remained in the intensive care unit of a local hospital after undergoing surgery for fractures in both legs and one arm that she sustained in the incident.

Two other Filipinos based in Italy were among those injured when a van plowed through crowds gathered at the Las Ramblas tourist district.

The injured Filipinos –one male and one female– will be assisted by the Philippine Consulate General in Milan in getting medical attention, according to Consul General Marichu Mauro.

Also injured in the attack were four Irish citizens of Filipino descent who were also attended to by the Embassy and the Honorary Consulate in Barcelona.

The four were identified as Norman Potot, 45; his wife Pederlita, 39; daughter Nailah Pearl, 9; and son Nathaniel Paul, 5; all residents of Dublin.

Norman and Nathaniel remain confined at the Hospital Del Mar in Barcelona. The father suffered a minor head injury but remains under observation for hematoma of the kidney.

His son is recovering from surgery for the fractured leg he sustained in the incident.

Norman’s wife sustained minor bruises while his daughter suffered fractured arm. (PNA)