Family of slain OFW in Kuwait cries for justice

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — The family of Dafnie Nacalaban, an overseas Filipino worker who was slain in Kuwait, is asking the government to help them seek justice for her death.

According to the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), Nacalaban, 35, was reported missing in October and her decomposing remains were discovered last Dec. 31 with the help of information shared by the brother of the suspected killer.

The still suspect, still unnamed, had already been arrested in Kuwait, the DMW said.

Nacalaban’s siblings in Barangay Dansolihon here in Cagayan de Oro are still in shock upon hearing about her fate in Kuwait where she had worked for the last five years.

READ: Another OFW in Kuwait dead; suspect nabbed

Roxan Enloran, 45, Nacalaban’s elder sister, said they could not yet comprehend how her usually shy sister earned the ire of her perpetrator.

“She is quite reserved that you have to initiate a conversation with her before she talks,” Enloran recalled. “We call for justice for my sister’s killing.”

Nacalaban is the seventh of eight siblings.

“We wanted to bring her home in Dansolihon and be buried next to our parents,” Enloran said.

Dafnie’s siblings in Dansolihon had already filed for a repatriation request for her remains.

Enloran said Nacalaban lived with her common-law husband, Bonifacio Balucos, and their daughter in Molave town, Zamboanga del Sur province.

The last time her siblings in Dansolihon contacted Nacalaban was on Oct. 29 through video call. It was at this time when she mentioned going home by December, although she had no specific date — “as if to surprise us,” Enloran said in Cebuano.

“She had an estimate [of costs] of her planned house prepared because she was looking forward to going home,” Enloran added.

They had no contact with her after Oct. 29. They just thought Nacalaban must be traveling with her employer.

Enloran explained that they had been accustomed to her sister being unable to call back home if she was traveling with her employer.

When asked if Nacalaban had mentioned facing any hardship from her employer, Enloran said that her sister shared nothing of that sort. Their conversations, she added, were always about her plans of building a house when she got home.

Enloran said they first knew about Nacalaban’s death through a phone call from her daughter. This was after the Zamboanga City office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) contacted Nacalaban’s partner.

Nacalaban was recruited by an agency based in Zamboanga City.