Tiananmen car crash: Doctor’s family ‘in stable condition’
Chinese security personnel direct tourists visiting Tiananmen Gate close to the site of Monday’s incident where a car plowed through a crowd before it crashed and burned in Beijing, China, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The husband and two children of the Filipino female doctor who was killed in the car crash “are in a stable condition” in a Chinese hospital, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan
The husband and two children of a Filipino female doctor who was killed in a car crash at Tiananmen Square in Beijing are “in a stable condition” in a Chinese hospital, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Tuesday.
“This morning, representatives from our embassy in Beijing visited the three Filipinos who were injured in the car crash in Tiananmen Square,” said the DFA spokesman, Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez. “The Filipinos, a father and his two daughters, are confined in Tongren Hospital and are in stable condition.”
Hernandez said the Filipino family had just crossed a street when a vehicle plowed into the crowd. The Filipino mother was among those killed.
“She was brought to a Beijing hospital for treatment but she succumbed to injuries,” Hernandez said.
The DFA withheld the identities of the Filipinos “in honor of their wish for privacy at this difficult time.”
“Our embassy has assured them of all appropriate assistance, particularly in their immediate repatriation and in the repatriation of the remains of their loved one,” Hernandez said.
Fatality identified
The Philippine Medical Association (PMA), however, identified the Filipino woman fatality as Dr. Lina Bunyi, and her injured husband as Dr. Nelson Bunyi.
The PMA is appealing to the government to help repatriate the Bunyi family.
The PMA president, Dr. Leo Olarte, said that, according to the information he had received, Nelson Bunyi and the two Bunyi children were taken to Tongren Hospital in Beijing.
Nelson Bunyi is a pediatrician, while his wife was an obstetrician-gynecologist at Our Lady of the Pillar Medical Center in Imus, Cavite province.
“This is really saddening for us. We hope that Dr. Nelson and their kids will recover,” Olarte said.
According to Olarte, the husband was a former president of the Cavite Medical Society, a local component of the PMA.
“Doctor Nelson is a pillar of PMA in our local chapter in Cavite. He is a very active leader,” he said. The Bunyi family is from Imus.
Not first time
This was not the first time Filipinos had been involved in a tragedy at Tiananmen Square.
In April 2005, Emmanuel Madrigal, a retired IT manager of Pilipinas Shell, his wife Vivian, and their daughter Regina Mia were stabbed at the square while they were touring China.
The Madrigals were attacked by a knife-wielding man who ran amuck near the Mao Zedong Mausoleum.
Madrigal and his daughter died as a result of the stabbing but Vivian survived.
Their assailant was sentenced to death in September 2005.—With Inquirer Archives
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