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Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Thai family mistakenly claims Pinoy fatality
MANILA -- A Filipino family's search for a loved one who died in Thailand's tsunami-ravaged Phuket province ended in the capital, Bangkok, where the body was brought and mistakenly claimed by a Thai family, a Philippine official said Monday.
Officials were unaware how the mistake happened, but said the confusion surrounding Kathryn Joy Lomadilla's remains may have been caused by the unprecedented magnitude of the disaster, or simply because Filipinos and Thais look alike.
Lomadilla, 23, a choreographer and ballet dance instructor at a Phuket hotel, is among five Filipinos in Thailand confirmed to have died when quake-triggered tsunamis devastated the popular tourist haven on December 26.
The others, as reported by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), are Sharleen May Ang Tan, Ivy Catherine Romenio-Terasaka, Estelita C. Sales and Ria Jane M. Tuzara.
On the upside, a Filipino woman earlier reported missing in Thailand in the wake of the disaster was found alive, foreign officials said.
Added to the list of survivors was Michelle Faustino Noel, said DFA spokesman Gilbert Asuque, adding that with this development, 21 Filipinos now remain missing.
Early warning
In the aftermath of the killer earthquake and waves, President Arroyo said Monday that establishing a tsunami early warning system "must be everyone's and every nation's business."
She added that a regional summit and donors' conference in Jakarta on Thursday "is urgent and significant not only to step up the international humanitarian response to the multinational disaster, but to enhance regional disaster-preparedness through a consolidated information sharing and early warning system."
"We have seen and even experienced the price of being caught unaware of devastating calamities," Arroyo told reporters.
"Disaster mitigation must now be everyone's and every nation's business. Each nation must act locally but think globally."
Arroyo said she will take with her to the summit officials of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, the health department and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
The Philippines operates its own early warning system, but Arroyo said it needed to be updated and linked to similar systems in Hawaii, Japan and China.
Prayer, mourning
Also on Monday, Arroyo declared a national day of prayer and mourning on January 7 in deference to those who perished in the earthquake and tsunamis that have claimed almost 200,000 lives.
"Friday is a good day to have prayers because the Muslims pray especially on Friday and also it's first Friday, so we will have that day of prayer and mourning. We will ask everybody to pray but on that day," Arroyo told a press conference Monday.
The day of prayer would be held a day after she arrives from a one-day tsunami summit in Jakarta on January 6 to be attended by leaders from Asia and the Pacific region. Arroyo would leave January 5.
About 30 Roman Catholic nuns, priests and members of other denominations and sects from the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Africa offered Monday prayers, flowers and candles for the tsunami victims in Manila's Makati financial district.
Some 20 Filipinos are still missing in the disaster that has killed hundreds of thousands and devastated several Southeast Asian countries.
They are Alexander Latoza, Alma Gillado, Ariel Mallari, Cruzette Bulaon Cruz, Dario Banua Maniago, Edna Atienza Suess, Eliza Ferguzon, Gerard and wife Jennifer Liew May Lin Reyes, Cassandra Szeli Liew Reyes, Gerard Sanchez, Gloria Pongco Bauarle, Jasmin Barandoc, Jay Ocampo, Josephine Ragual, Josie Co, Jovita Gomez, Marcela Albao, Marcial Ferre, Michael Galang, and Remedios Rico Daniel.
With the recent discovery of a Filipino survivor, the foreign affairs office hopes more would be found as authorities continue search operations.
Confusion
One of those earlier listed as missing was reported to have died in the disaster in Thailand but a Thai family had wrongfully claimed her body.
"There were just too many casualties or maybe because Thais and Filipinos look the same. We don't know, but in a disaster of this magnitude, confusion is bound to happen," said Hector Cruz, a Manila-based labor official helping families locate dead, injured or missing relatives in Thailand.
Cruz said that Lomadilla's sister had planned to travel to Phuket to look for the remains but heard that a Thai family admitted it had mistakenly claimed the body of a woman that was brought from Phuket to Bangkok.
She checked and found on Sunday that the body was her sister's, Cruz said.
Cruz said the family planned to cremate the remains in Thailand.
About 5,000 people were killed by the tsunamis in Thailand, more than 2,400 of them foreigners.
Thai authorities and foreign experts from other countries helped identify rapidly decomposing remains, which lay unclaimed in Phuket.
On Sunday, eight Filipino forensic experts left for Thailand to help identify decomposing remains of people who died on tsunami-hit Phuket island, where five Filipinos were confirmed killed. (AP/Sunnex Luzon)
(January 4, 2005 issue)
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