Gov asked to help bring OFW’s remains home
A family from Toledo City has asked the Capitol for help in the repatriation of the remains of a 35-year-old female domestic helper who died in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last year.
Zenaida Yu said her daughter Lotis Camocamo reportedly fell to her death from the third floor of the building where she worked at.
Camocamo died on October 29 last year but her family found out about her demise only on December 27 through her husband, who works in another part of Riyadh.
Yu said she has already sought the assistance of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
“We just want her body to be brought back here but we don’t have money to do that. That’s our plea. We ask that she may be put to rest here already,” Zenaida Yu told reporters after her meeting with the governor’s staff.
Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III was not in his office when Yu and her friend visited the Capitol. But the governor directed his executive assistant to refer the family to the provincial social welfare office.
The governor also committed to shoulder the burial expenses once Camocamo’s remains arrives in Cebu.
In cases like this, Davide usually sends a letter to the DFA for help in expediting the repatriation of the remains.
REPORT
Anika Fernandez, DFA 7 regional director, said in a text message to Cebu Daily News that they sent a preliminary report to the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh last January 4.
She said Yu was in her office on the same day.
“Riyadh hasn’t gotten back to us on this, but we have sent a new follow-up,” she said.
Fernandez added that she has also spoken with Camocamo’s husband already.
Camocamo, a high school graduate, would have returned home in the first week of February this year after her two-year contract expires.
Yu said she believed there was foul play in her daughter’s death.
Based on the autopsy results, Camocamo had bruises on her face and chest. A blood clot in her head caused her death.
“She used to tell me she was being abused by her female employer but she couldn’t see her husband because she wasn’t allowed to. The three of us just talked to each other over the phone,” said Yu.
Camocamo’s workplace is far from her husband’s. They keep in touch only by phone.
Camocamo’s three children have been living with Yu since she left for the Middle East in 2014. Her husband followed shortly after.
“She left because she wanted to give her children a good life,” Yu said.
Yu said she and her daughter’s husband were still able to contact Camocamo in the first week of October last year.
Camocamo stopped communicating with her husband and her mother in the second week of October. Yu said she believed her daughter’s phone was confiscated by her employers.
When the husband spoke to one of Camocamo’s employers in December, he was told that his wife already died.
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