{"id":153852,"date":"2018-02-22T19:56:19","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T00:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=153852"},"modified":"2018-02-22T19:56:19","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T00:56:19","slug":"prrd-visits-wake-of-slain-ofw-in-iloilo-extends-financial-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/22\/prrd-visits-wake-of-slain-ofw-in-iloilo-extends-financial-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD visits wake of slain OFW in Iloilo, extends financial aid"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Duterte<\/a>
Duterte visited the wake of Demafelis in Barangay Feraris here where he extended financial and burial assistance to the family of the slain OFW. (PNA Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SARA, Iloilo<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Thursday, Feb. 22, personally condoled with the family of Joanna Demafelis, the overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who was killed in Kuwait.<\/p>\n

Duterte visited the wake of Demafelis in Barangay Feraris here where he extended financial and burial assistance to the family of the slain OFW.<\/p>\n

Demafelis died in Kuwait after suffering from extreme physical abuse allegedly committed by her employers. Her corpse was found kept inside a freezer, an act the President has strongly condemned and deplored.<\/p>\n

Aside from financial aid, President Duterte also provided scholarships to Demafelis\u2019 siblings.<\/p>\n

The Chief Executive extended a total of PHP500,000 in assistance to the Demafelis family and also promised to complete the reconstruction of their house. Duterte also committed to redeem a parcel of land mortgaged by the family.<\/p>\n

With regard to the call for justice by the Demafelis family, the President said he would leave the matter to the Kuwaiti authorities for now.<\/p>\n

He, however, stressed that the ban on the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait will remain until the killers of Demafelis are arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt behooves upon the police of Kuwait and the Interpol, there\u2019s a serious crime.\u00a0Problema nila \u2018yan. Basta ako,<\/em>\u00a0the ban stays,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way to do that is we can have the result of the investigations\u00a0kung nahuli \u2018yang dalawang tao<\/em>\u00a0and that would allow me now to initiate charges. So by that time, in the fullness of God\u2019s time,\u00a0kung mangyari \u2018yan mahuli at nademanda, doon pa ako papasok.\u00a0<\/em>Until then, we\u2019ll just have to wait and pray that they will be apprehended or arrested,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The President reiterated that he intends to expand the deployment ban to countries that have records of mistreatment of Filipino migrant workers.<\/p>\n

He noted that the government is currently doing an audit to find out the places where OFWs are deployed and what countries have records of abuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIna-audit pa po<\/em>\u00a0because you have to have a list then you have to have the individual cases reported and unreported. That would be a long, long task,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A first-time overseas worker, Demafelis went abroad in May 2014 with goals of rebuilding a family home destroyed by Typhoon Yolanda, setting up a small store for her mother and send her younger sibling to college. She also wanted to redeem a piece of land owned by the family.<\/p>\n

Demafelis was presumed to have died in 2016 after his employers, an Arab couple of Lebanese and Syrian origin, reported her missing at that time.<\/p>\n

Her employers, who fled their rented residence in Kuwait, are considered prime suspects for her murder.<\/p>\n

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) worked together to bring back the remains of Demafelis, which arrived in Iloilo on Feb. 18.<\/p>\n

OWWA and DOLE have already extended livelihood assistance to the Demafelis family with local Iloilo officials and private individuals and organizations providing similar support.<\/p>\n

Philippine authorities, particularly the National Bureau of Investigation, have been working with Kuwaiti authorities and the Interpol for the capture of Demafelis\u2019 killers.<\/p>\n

Demafelis will be laid to rest on\u00a0March 3\u00a0here in Sara, Iloilo, according to her family.\u00a0(PND)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SARA, Iloilo\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Thursday, Feb. 22, personally condoled with the family of Joanna Demafelis, the overseas …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":153853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[9396,46759,15517,13944],"class_list":["post-153852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","tag-joanna-demafelis","tag-overseas-workers-welfare-administration","tag-president-rodrigo-r-duterte","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}