• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Loreta Villaren Alacre, a 49-year-old Negrense caregiver killed in Israel, is finally home in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.
It took almost two weeks for her remains to arrive in the country, after she was killed in an attack staged by Hamas militant fighters in Israel on October 7. She was among the four Filipinos killed in Israel, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The remains of Loreta, which arrived at about 5:56 a.m. yesterday at the Bacolod Silay Airport, was fetched by her siblings, representatives of the Department of Migrant Workers, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, with her transportation to a funeral parlor in Cadiz City facilitated by the city government.
In an interview at the Bacolod-Silay Airport, Lorena Alacre yesterday said the remains of her sister were already bloated.
The remains of Loreta are now at a funeral parlor, pending her transfer to the house she helped build in Sitio Camay-an, Brgy. Cadiz Viejo, Cadiz City, on Oct. 23.
Lorena said their main concern now is how to finance the education of their nephews and nieces, which were shouldered by Loreta when she was still alive.
Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez has extended P500,000 financial assistance to the family of Alacre, which was received by Loreta’s siblings last week.
Loreta is scheduled to be buried on November 5 at a public cemetery in Brgy. Caduha-an, Cadiz City.
Cadiz City Mayor Salvador Escalante said they are now studying interventions on how to assist the siblings of Loreta, as six of them were dependent on her, aside from her nephews and nieces whose education she had also financed.
Asked if the Alacre family had any additional requests from the Cadiz City government, Escalante said they have not asked anything.
I think they have everything they need with the assistance they are getting from the national government, he added.
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration has also put up a tarpaulin outside the house to express their sympathy to the bereaved family, while the city government of Cadiz repaired the road and added lights going to the house of Alacre.
In a statement, OWWA said that Loreta had been described by her Israeli employee as a “dedicated caregiver.”
OWWA-Western Visayas regional director Rizza Joy Moldes, Migrant Worker department regional director Glenda Aligonza, and Engr. Jojo Amugod of the Migrant Resource Center also joined the Alacre family at the Bacolod-Silay Airport.
Prior to her death, Loreta last came home to Cadiz City, Negros Occidental, in 2017.*
