• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
In honor of Negrense caregiver Loreta Alacre, who was killed in an attack staged by Hamas militant fighters in Israel, an evacuation center in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental, will be named after her, disclosed Mayor Salvador Escalante Jr. on Tuesday.
The newly built Cadiz City Evacuation Center within Cadiz Viejo National High School in Brgy. Cadiz Viejo, Cadiz City, is to be named the Loreta V. Alacre Evacuation Center, in honor of its alumna’s “heroism” for 19 years as Overseas Filipino Worker, from Taiwan to Israel, within the period of 2002 to 2023, Escalante said.
This was relayed by Escalante to Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) administrator Arnel Ignacio, who visited the wake of Alacre on October 23 in Sitio Camay-an, Brgy. Cadiz Viejo, Cadiz City, where the seven siblings of Loreta and her family reside.
Escalante, who described Loreta, known as Lori, among her family members and friends, as Cadiz’s “Bagong Bayani,” said that his request for renaming the evacuation center was already forwarded to the Sangguniang Panlungsod for deliberation and approval.
After she was killed in Israel on October 7, it took almost two weeks for her remains to arrive in the country. She was among the four Filipinos killed in Israel, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Loreta is scheduled to be buried on Nov. 5 at a public cemetery in Brgy. Caduha an, Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.
After a mass offered to Loreta on Tuesday at her residence, the OWWA, represented by its administrator, Arnel Ignacio, and the Department of Migrant Workers, each turned over P50,000 in financial assistance to the family of slain OFW, aside from the financial assistance of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and a livelihood package from the Department of Labor and Employment.
Aside from OWWA’s payment of P104,000 for the funeral expenses of Loreta, Escalante said it also assured full scholarship grants to the four nephews and nieces of slain OFW, whose education she financed while she was still alive.
He added that the Cadiz City government is also willing to include the nephews and nieces of Loreta in the city government scholarship program, at P5,000 per semester for college students.
Escalante said they are also looking at the possibility of employing Nelia Alacre, youngest sister of Loreta, and her brother, in the city government.
Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez also extended P500,000 financial assistance to the family of Alacre, which was received by Loreta’s siblings last week.*
