ABU DHABI // The body of a Filipino who was stabbed to death while on a visa run to Kish Island from the capital is due to arrive in Manila today, more than a month after he was killed. He will be laid to rest on Wednesday, according to Perlita Carmen, the mother of Mark Lloyd Carmen. She said the family would like to leave the fate of the Sudanese man who is charged with her son's death to the justice system of Iran.
Her son's wife, Baican, now plans to seek a job in the UAE to support their two children. Carmen, 24, was stabbed during a fight with a Sudanese man, reportedly by a second Sudanese man who stepped in to break up the melee in a hotel on July 1. Mrs Carmen, a 55-year-old former government employee in Taguig City, Metro Manila, last saw her son when she put him on a plane bound for the UAE on April 4.
"I'm filled with mixed emotions," she said by phone. "I'm glad that he'll be back here but I don't know how I would come to terms with his death." John Leonard Monterona, the Middle East co-ordinator for Migrante, an organisation set up to support Filipino migrants, said the group had expected the repatriation to take three months. The body was flown for an autopsy to Tehran, where the Philippine embassy has yet to send home almost a dozen corpses, he said.
"The media's attention to the case has helped in the immediate repatriation of Mark's remains." Mrs Carmen said her son had plans to bring his family to Abu Dhabi once he settled into his new job at an interior decorating company in the capital. He had been offered Dh1,200 a month, but planned to work overtime. "He called his wife two hours before he was stabbed to death on July 1," Mrs Carmen said. "He said that his roommate got his work visa and he was expecting his own visa to come through within two to three days. He assured us that things would get better for the family. He even promised to send me money now that I'm unemployed."
Carmen's aunt in Al Ain, Estela Gonzaga, 37, had said last month that her nephew had been staying at a hotel on the island since June 11 while waiting for a new visa to re-enter the Emirates. He spent two months in Abu Dhabi looking for a job before flying to Kish. Ms Gonzaga flew to Tehran last week to check with the Philippine embassy in the Iranian capital. The embassy received Manila's approval for the provision of repatriation funds on July 26, she said.
"I'm glad that he will finally be laid to rest," she said. @Email:rruiz@thenational.ae