The body of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who died of brain illness in Canada on Jan. 3 was scheduled to arrive in Manila Thursday, without any help from the Philippine government, according to a migrant workers' group. In a statement Wednesday, Migrante-Alberta chapter said the Philippine Consulate in Edmonton, Canada, had refused to provide assistance for the repatriation of the remains of caregiver Merlinda Agos. Migrante-Alberta coordinator Gina Martinez Doblado said Agos's membership from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), which could have included funding for repatriation, have expired. Agos, a 49-year-old nanny in Alberta collapsed on Jan. 3 at a retail store where she was sending money to her family in Kabangkalan town in Negros Occidental province. She was admitted at the University of Alberta Hospital and was diagnosed with brain aneurysm, a condition where blood vessels going to the brain bulge and rupture. Agos turned comatose and died at past 11 P.M. the same day after her family, in contact by phone with the attending physician, agreed to unplug her respirator, according to Maria Cristina Mangulabnan, a fellow caregiver. Mangulabnan said that according to the Philippine consulate, it was the responsibility of Agos's employer to send her remains back home as she reportedly failed to renew her membership with OWWA. Workers pay an OWWA membership fee of $25 (P1,134) everytime they sign a new employment contract. The fee is to be paid again when an OFW enters into another contract. One of the membership's benefits is financial assistance for repatriation. Agos was a domestic helper in Taiwan before going to Canada. According to Doblado, other OFWs who relocated to Canada as caregivers were also unaware that membership with OWWA has to be renewed for every new employment contract they sign. Agos's present and previous employers, as well as a local Christian ministry, contributed to cover the cost of repatriation of her remains which amounted to CAD 7,800 (P344,442). Agos's friends also solicited from their employers and fellow nannies to help in the repatriation of Abos's remains, according to Doblado. Doblado has called on the Department of Foreign Affairs to help repatriate Agos's remains, as well as provide assistance to her two children. She has not received any response from the DFA until Agos died. “This is an insult to her and to many OFWs who are doing service to our country through their remittances,” Mangulabnan added. She criticized the Philippine Consulate in Edmonton for failing to assist in the repatriation of Agos's body. The Philippine consulate in Edmonton and the OWWA could not be reached for comment Thursday morning.
