Body of one of 2 missing Pinays in Haiti found

By Michaela P. del Callar

02/09/2010

Rescue workers have found the body of one of the two missing Filipino women trapped in the rubble of a supermarket that crumbled in the 7.0-magnitude quake that hit Haiti last Jan. 12, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

Citing a report from Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy, commander of the 10th Philippine Peacekeeping Contingent, the DFA said the body of Mary Grace Fabian was pulled out of the collapsed Caribbean Supermarket around 11 a.m. Sunday in Haiti (12 a.m. Monday in Manila).

The discovery of her body came three weeks after the devastating earthquake struck the Caribbean state.

“Fabian’s remains was recovered by the Central National Equipment Retrieval team, assisted by some members of the Philippine contingent headed by Cpl. Eric Dedales and Senior Navy Officer I Carlo Dangcalan,” the DFA said.

Fabian was positively identified by Lowel Lalican, the husband of Geraldine Lalican, the other Filipino still trapped under the rubble of the supermarket.

Fabian, an employee of the Caribbean Supermarket, was identified through her uniform, hair and necklace, the DFA said.

Fabian’s sister, Rosalyn, decided to immediately bury her remains at the National Cemetery in Port-au-Prince.

The DFA said the Philippine contingent in Haiti is continuing to work to find Lalican.

Three Filipino peacekeepers and a Filipino UN civilian staff were among the tens of thousands killed in the quake.

The death of the three military peacekeepers is the single biggest loss suffered by the Philippines in the 46 years it has been participating in UN peacekeeping operations.

In 1996, Capt. Emmanuel Rabaya was killed when an improvised explosive went off while he was serving in the UN Guard Contingent in Iraq, while Staff Sgt. Antonio Batomalaque of the 1st Philippine Peacekeeping Contingent in Haiti was killed when gunmen attacked UN peacekeepers in Port-au-Prince in 2005.

Yap was the fifth Filipino lost while in the service of the UN since 2003 when a terrorist attack at the UN Headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq claimed the life of Ranillo Buenaventura.

Three other UN staff members from the Philippines were killed in terrorist-related incidents: Jossie Esto of the UN Volunteers Program in Kabul in 2009; Perseveranda So of the United Nations Children’s Fund in Peshawar, also last year; and Gene Luna of the World Food Program in Algiers in 2008.

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