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| President Marcos talks to Rhodora Tonacao at Manila airport |
An overseas Filipino worker who was severely injured in the Nov 26 fire in Tai Po, Hong Kong, was flown home to Manila today, with no less than President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. leading the group of officials who met her at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Rhodora Alcaraz Toñacao, 39, was accompanied on the flight home
by her two sisters, along with social welfare attaché to Hong Kong Rem
Marcelino and welfare officer Marilou Sumalinog of the Overseas Workers Welfare
Administrator (OWWA).
President
Marcos, on the other hand, was accompanied to the airport by OWWA administrator PY Caunan and other officials of the Department of Migrant Workers.
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| DETAILS HERE |
Rhodora,
who had started working for her employer just the day before, suffered severe smoke
inhalation after being trapped in the 13th
floor flat for about six hours, along with the employer’s three-month-old daughter
and mother.
Despite this, Rhodora managed to send out tearful voice
messages to her siblings and friends asking to be rescued along with the baby
and her grandmother. This appeared to have contributed to their being rescued
in time, and saved from greater harm.
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| OWWA Chief PY Caunan helps clear the way for Rhodora |
Social
media bloggers immediately hailed her as a hero for supposedly saving the baby (erroneously described earlier as a boy), by covering
her with a blanket and holding him close to her until the firemen arrived to
save them.
This
narrative was immediately dismissed in a social media post, allegedly by the employer, who said it
was her mother who had taken steps to ensure that the baby was safe, even
putting her in a wardrobe to prevent excessive smoke inhalation, and then
letting the firemen know later that a baby was in there.
But soources at the Consulate said the employer had denied posting any statement on the internet when inteviewed by OWWA officers.
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Philippine Consul General Romulo Israel, Jr, who was
among the first to visit Rhodora at the hospital, said the OFW’s recollection
was still hazy at the time and she could barely talk. But she remembered walking barefoot going down from
the 13th floor because the fireman could not carry her all the way.
Rhodora also remembered being given a wet blanket by
the grandmother and told to cover herself and the baby while they waited for rescuers.
In turn she lent her phone to the grandmother so she
could call for help.
“Both of them are real heroes,” said Congen Israel,
who also gave praise to all the 30-odd Filipino domestic workers who stayed
close to their employers and their wards during the tragic fire that killed 160
people.
One of them, Maryann Esteban, was among those who unfortunately
died in the fire, along with the three-year-old girl she was looking after. Her
remains are still in Hong Kong but are expected to be flown home shortly.
In
a post announcing Rhodora’s arrival, OWWA said the President’s act of personally
welcoming Rowena home was in recognition of the “pambihirang
kabayanihang ipinamalas niya sa kabila ng panganib sa sariling buhay” (the remarkable heroism she showed in
spite of the threat to her own life).
From the airport, Rhodora reportedly went straight to her home in Laguna, accompanied by regional officers of OWWA.
Rhodora was the lone recipient of a HK$100,000 financial aid from the Hong Kong government, which was given to those who were injured in the fire, and had to stay in the hospital for a week or longer.
She also received Php50,000 from the Aksyon Fund of the DMW, apart from a Php20,000 cash assistance from the Philippine House of Representatives.
Senator Imee Marcos, the President’s elder sister, also visited Rhodora in hospital, and reportedly gave her an undisclosed sum.
