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| Lina emerges from court in 2023 after testifying against her employer who had locked her out |
The
remains of a former overseas Filipino worker whose recent death sparked appeals
for help on social media, are now in her hometown of Tayug, Pangasinan, after
her friends and the Muslim community in Hong Kong raised the needed funds for
repatriation.
Lina Realiza Doculan, 52 and a single mother of three adult children, died of cardiac arrest triggered by pulmonary embolism on September 22 at Tuen Mun Hospital.
Her daughter, Rolyn Grace, said that by then, her mother had long been jobless due to her pending application for asylum, so their family struggled to raise the HK$42,000 needed to cover the cost of sending the remains back to the Philippines.
Grace said her mother first arrived in Hong Kong in 2014. She had an uneventful employment history until her last contract was terminated in 2023, after she testified in court against the prominent daughter of her employer who had locked her out of the house, and had thrown her things out in a fit of rage.
Failing to secure another job and to claim compensation for her wrongful termination, Lina ended up overstaying her visa, but was eventually caught and detained. She fainted while in detention, and it was then that she was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism.
Grace said her mother had indicated her desire to go home to recover, but again fainted on the street shortly after leaving Tuen Mun Hospital on September 4. She was re-admitted in a comatose state, and never regained consciousness until she died a few days later.
As Lina had no employer and no insurance that would have paid for repatriating her remains, her friends turned to social media to appeal for help from fellow OFWs.
The money raised from this, plus a substantial contribution from the Muslims friends of her Pakistani partner, enabled them to raise enough for the repatriation.
Grace said she and another sibling decided to fly to Hong Kong to seek help from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration but were told that securing funding from Manila would take some time, so her mother’s friends decided to just cover the expenses themselves.
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| Lina never regained consciousness after being admitted to hospital on Sept. 4 |
Because of this setback, Grace, along with some of her mother’s friends, bewailed on social media the apparent inaction by the Philippine government on their appeal for help.
As a result, OWWA HK reached out to Grace and informed her that her mother’s body would be accompanied by their staff from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila to their hometown in Pangasinan.
Grace said her family had asked OWWA if it could help pay for the funeral expenses for her mother, but the welfare agency reportedly told them that the most that they could get was Php20,000 in burial assistance. Sadly, even this could not be released to them in time for Lina’s funeral tomorrow.
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