The remains of Deward Ponte, the 15-year-old Filipino high school student who was killed on January 27 in Vancouver, Canada will be brought to Manila on Sunday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
Ponte arrived in Canada with her younger sister two years ago upon sponsorship by his 42-year-old mother, Daisy Ponte, who has been working as a caregiver since 2000. He was a popular Grade 10 student at Sir Winston Churchill high school where he played on the basketball team.
Ponte’s father died when he was four years old. Four years later, he and a younger sister were left under the care of an aunt because his mother had to go to Canada to work. His mother worked hard for five years before saving enough to bring the siblings to Canada.
DFA spokesman Claro Cristobal said Ponte’s remains will arrive on board Philippine Airlines flight PR 107 at 5 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 10, for an onward flight to Bacolod City.
Representatives of the DFA and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration will be on hand to assist in the repatriation process, he said.
The Filipino community in Vancouver has been mourning the death of the young man who described by relatives as a "decent kid" and a "basketball champ" at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary on Vancouver's west side.
He was found bleeding from stab wounds in the 1000-block of East 33rd Avenue shortly after police were called to Grays Park, where about a dozen teens were reported to be creating noise after 2 a.m. on January 27. He did not make it to the hospital. A second man, Clifford Mamuad, was wounded but survived the attack.
Nineteen-year-old Roseller Salvacion had been charged with second-degree murder in Ponte’s death. Burnaby resident Dillan Anthony Butler, 18, is facing attempted murder for wounding Mamuad. - GMANews.TV
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