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BAGUIO, Philippines -- The family of a Filipina hotel worker killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan urged diplomats Wednesday to quickly repatriate the remains to her impoverished mountain hamlet.
Foreign department officials identified the woman as Zennia Aguilan, 31, a physical therapist and the spa supervisor at the five-star Serena Hotel that was attacked by Taliban insurgents on Monday.
"Her mother is crushed and inconsolable. We want her body brought back home," Aguilan's cousin Shirley Lebeng told Agence France-Presse by phone.
"She is already in her 60s and has already been told of the incident."
Described as adventurous and kind-hearted, Aguilan left her scenic hometown of Sagada in Mountain Province in August for her $700-a-month job in Kabul, four months before Manila imposed a travel ban to the country.
Her mother, retired teacher Herminia, and four other adult siblings tried to dissuade her from going but to no avail, her cousin said.
"She wanted to travel, to be on her own," Lebeng said, adding that Aguilan had previously worked in Taiwan and in the Middle East.
Lebeng said Aguilan was highly independent, and her teachers at the Anglican-run Saint Mary's school in Sagada remembered her as "good and kind-hearted."
"She knew how to take care of herself," Lebeng said, expressing disbelief that she had died at the hands of Taliban militants.
The Philippines does not have an embassy in Afghanistan and diplomats in Pakistan capital Islamabad are working to get her body repatriated.
Forensic authorities in Afghanistan may require more time to gather evidence and therefore may need to keep the body for longer, officials in the Philippines said.
"We last saw her at a family dinner before she left. She didn't seem worried at all about stories relating to Afghanistan," Lebeng said.
"She felt that she would be able to fully utilize her knowledge as a therapist in that place."
Security forces in Afghanistan said they had arrested four men in connection with the attack, which killed Aguilan, a US national, a Norwegian and four others.
There are an estimated eight to nine million Filipinos working abroad, many of them in menial jobs in dangerous countries.
While the government has imposed a travel ban on some destinations including Afghanistan, Iraq and Nigeria, many go through illegal channels for jobs offering as little as $200 a month -- an amount more than twice the average basic monthly income here.
