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DFA reports second suicide among stranded Filipinos overseas
According to the ship tracking service provider VesselFinder, the Harmony of the Seas cruise ship is currently at the Caribbean Sea. Its last two stops were at Bridgetown, Barbados on May 27 and Cape Canaveral, Florida on May 23.
(Pixabay photo)
MANILA – A 28-year-old Filipina died by suicide onboard a cruise ship while awaiting repatriation, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. reported on Thursday.
“It is my sad duty to report that 28-year old female mariner committed suicide in her cabin in the ship where she’d had to stay because repatriation flights back to the Philippines have been suspended again,” he said over Twitter.
The country’s top diplomat identified the Filipina seafarer as Mariah Jocson.
According to the ship tracking service provider VesselFinder, the Harmony of the Seas cruise ship is currently at the Caribbean Sea. Its last two stops were at Bridgetown, Barbados on May 27 and Cape Canaveral, Florida on May 23.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has yet to disclose details about Jocson’s death.
Locsin said this was the second suicide case among overseas Filipinos since the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak began.
Last May, a Filipino household service worker who was taken in by the Philippine Embassy in Beirut died after jumping from a room she was sharing with two other overseas Filipino workers.
“Second suicide. We are tartly reminded that Filipino resilience is no excuse to stretch them to breaking point. ‘Di sila goma; tao sila (they are not rubber bands; they are human beings),” he wrote.
