MANILA, Philippines — The remains of a pregnant Filipino woman allegedly beaten up to death by her Malaysian husband arrived in Manila Monday night.
Siblings and other relatives of the late Vivian Caromata, 32, a native of San Antonio, Nueva Ecija, wept as her casket was brought out from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport cargo terminal at around 9:30 p.m. Monday.
The victim’s family was accompanied by a contingent from the overseas Filipino workers group Migrante International who held a candlelight vigil and set up placards calling for justice for Caromata.
Migrante president Gary Martinez said the group would monitor the progress of the investigation and trial in Malaysia as well as the efforts of the Philippine embassy there to secure a conviction.
According to Vivian’s younger brother Jayson, they learned that her husband Nicky Yiew had been beating her up for the past two to three months after she confronted him for having an affair.
The couple met in Manila in 2005 and married three years later, settling in the Johor Baru, capital city of the southern Malaysian state of Johor. Yiew worked as a salesman while Vivian was a housewife.
Vivian did not inform her family back home about the beatings. Her friends in Malaysia who knew about the domestic violence posted messages on her Facebook account hoping it would reach her family back home, Jayson said.
The couple agreed to separate amicably but Vivian unexpectedly became pregnant with their third child, which the husband did not want. In their last quarrel on June 4, Vivian died after being hit by her husband on the abdomen.
The victim’s two daughters, aged 7 and 5, are in the custody of their Malaysian grandmother following the arrest of the husband.
Jayson said Vivian’s two children should be allowed by the Yiew’s family to come to the Philippines to attend their mother’s funeral and burial.
“We wish you would not deprive my sister of peace. We wish you will let them (the children) come here and accompany her to her final resting place,” Jayson appealed.
Martinez said Vivian’s family felt “very frustrated” because the embassy only gave the telephone numbers of the husband’s relatives and left it to Jayson and his siblings to contact them to make arrangements for the children.
“They (embassy staff) are already there in Malaysia, they should have made efforts to get the children. Vivian’s family would have to call long distance just to get in touch with her husbands’ relatives,” the OFW leader said.