Home 
MANILA, Philippines -- The remains of six Filipino seamen who died on board a Greek-owned ship that caught fire off Venezuela on Dec. 25 were flown to Manila on Saturday night following repatriation efforts by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The wooden crates containing the caskets bearing the remains of Bonifacio Vallescas, Reo Arias, Danilo Esparagoza, Noel Lagamon, Bryan Pragama and Jerry Espanola arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at around 7 p.m. Saturday on a chartered Boeing DC 8 flight.
Wailing family members and relatives hugged each other, some flinging themselves on wooden boxes, as the boxes were being offloaded at the NAIA cargo terminal.
?He?s supposed to arrive tomorrow (Jan. 3) so that we could be together at last. Why did it turn out this way?? said Vallescas? wife Marie, who recounted that her 32-year-old husband earlier decided to give up being a seaman and work here in the country.
Pragama?s brother Dennis, meanwhile, recounted how he was still able to speak to his brother during Christmas day in Manila.
?It?s very sad. We never imagined it would come to this,? he said.
Jocelyn Guiritan, a representative of the seafarers? manning agency Sea Power, said the families of the victims have been given an initial US$1,000 for burial expenses. She said the agency would be processing the death benefits for each sailor worth US$50,000.
The Filipinos were on board the MV Aegean Wind that caught fire on Christmas day while on sail in Venezuelan waters. The fire resulted in nine deaths, including the six Filipinos and three Greeks sailors.
Two Filipinos seafarers, Mark San Jose and Cromwell Pilapil, were injured. San Jose arrived in Manila earlier while Pilapil is still hospitalized in Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles.
Seven other Filipino seafarers who survived are still in Venezuelan capital Caracas for the ongoing investigation.
Accompanying the grieving relatives at the airport were DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA) executive director Enrico Fos and other officials of the DFA and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
Earlier Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo ordered the DFA migrant affairs office to coordinate efforts with the Philippine embassies in Caracas and Athens, Greece to help the Filipinos.
Caracas-based Philippine consul general Jose Ampeso was sent to Curacao to coordinate with the manning agency stationed there while in Athens, consul general Constancio Vingno coordinated with the Greek ship owners.
Philippine ambassador to Venezuela Jocelyn Batoon-Garcia coordinated with the authorities in Caracas and sought the assistance of her Dutch counterpart.
