By Ariel Fernandez
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) is willing to provide counseling to OFWs who are now experiencing depression due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
OWWA administrator Atty. Leo Hans Cacdac said they are willing to help OFWs who want to undergo counseling.
Cacdac raised this issue after one of the OFWs in 14-day quarantine in Pasay died by suicide. The agency is now trying to reach the family of the repatriated Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) from Kuwait who, suffering from depression, hanged herself to death at a hotel in Pasay City on Sunday where she underwent mandatory quarantine.
Southern Police District-Scene Of the Crime Operatives (SPD-SOCO) team leader Police Master Sergeant Javin Realgo identified the deceased as Algen Manos Cadungog, 42, female, an OFW from Kuwait. She was from Demapaco, Libungan Cotabato.
Witnesses Edna Maturan, 51, from Surigao del Norte and Noemi Gorospe, 38, from San Juan, Ilocos Sur told police investigators they were occupying room no. 45 with Cadungog at the Liza Lodge on Cuneta Avenue in Pasay City.
According to Gorospe she was walking down the stairs from the second floor of the hotel when she saw the victim’s body hanging underneath the wooden staircase at around 6 a.m. on Sunday, April 26, 2020.
The witnesses found Cadungog's body with a fabric scarf wrapped around her neck, its end portion tied to the step of the wooden stairway.
Police found a plastic bench beneath the stairway, which investigators believed the victim used to lift herself up.
Witnesses said they were all repatriated OFWs from Kuwait. They arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 and were brought to Lisa Lodge on April 4, 2020 for their mandatory quarantine, but they were stuck in the hotel due to the enhanced community quarantine imposed by the government.
Witnesses recalled that Cadungog was still alive, she revealed to them that she attempted suicide while she was in Kuwait but she did not elaborate.
They added that they last saw the victim alive at around 4 a.m., looking sad and anxious.
Cadungog's remains were brought to Rizal Funeral Homes in Pasay City for safekeeping and autopsy.