TOLEDO City native and overseas worker Juanito Pardillo would have turned 38 this March 8.
Instead, his family learned that he died after being buried by falling boulders while excavating an underground tunnel at the Doha Metro Red line in south Qatar at 9 a.m. (2 p.m. Manila time) last Sunday.
Pardillo’s co-worker, a Filipino, was seriously injured while four of his supervisors were jailed due to the incident, his wife Amelyn told Cebu Daily News.
Amelyn, who will turn 33 this June, said she received word about her husband’s death from her brother-in-law who is also employed in the same company.
She said her brother-in-law was unable to work that day since he was scheduled for a checkup due to a skin rash.
Juanito Pardillo, known to friends as “Opao,” died before he could be rushed to the hospital.
Amelyn said she was tutoring a student when she received the news.
She said her husband worked at Carmen Copper Corp. and managed to land a job in Qatar.
“Normal ra gyod tanan nag sigi pa mi ug chat sa wa pa mahitabo (Everything was normal, we chatted),” Amelyn said.
She said her husband even called their eight-year-old son Kerk and asked him about his first communion.
A week before the tragedy, Amelyn said her husband’s friend told her that Juanito joked about being buried alive.
She said she brushed it aside, knowing her husband’s sense of humor.
Amelyn said her husband was digging despite the rain in violation of company policy which prohibits workers from entering the tunnels whenever there is rain.
The company was ordered closed by the Qatar government.
Amelyn said the company’s human resources department assured her that the documents are being processed for her husband’s remains to be brought back to the country.
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