Author Topic: Tragedy on top of tragedy for an illegal OFW in Japan  (Read 966 times)

benelynne

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Tragedy on top of tragedy for an illegal OFW in Japan
« on: June 04, 2008, 11:47:02 AM »
Illegal OFW in Japan comes home for good after son’s death

By Julie M. Aurelio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:48:00 06/03/2008

MANILA, Philippies -- While languishing in a Japanese detention center for illegal aliens, Marina Contreras begged the heavens to turn her into a bird so she could fly home to Bulacan to bid her dead son goodbye.

"In jail, I felt like I was about to lose my mind...My son was dead and I couldn't come home to see him to his grave," the 46-year-old Marina said in an interview.

Marina finally got her wings on May 15 when she was freed to come home, six months after her 22-year-old son Jeric died in a motorcycle accident.

An article written in 2007 by Jeric, a cum laude graduate from the San Beda College, about the case of his mother, and published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, may have had something to do with her early release. His story attracted the attention of sympathetic officials--among them Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and former senator Rene Saguisag.

Dressed in a simple black blouse and accompanied by her three surviving children, Marina paid a visit to Binay on Tuesday to thank him for following up her case and helping her come home.

After Binay read Jeric's story in the newspaper in 2007, he wrote a letter to Ambassador Domingo Siazon requesting assistance for Marina's case.

Saguisag, a noted defense lawyer, also appealed to the Department of Foreign Affairs to help the jailed Marina get clemency.

"I have a very soft spot for stories like Jeric's, those who are missing their mothers but made it through school even with their mothers in a far away land," Binay told reporters.

He also learned of Jeric's death at the age of 22 last year and wrote the Philippine Embassy in Japan again to ask if the mother could be allowed to come home to attend her son's burial.

"But it wasn't allowed, so in April, Siazon told us that Marina might be freed any time now. We are thankful to the Japanese authorities for granting our request," Binay added.

Marina returned to the country on May 15 after spending two years and two months in a detention center for illegal aliens at Tochigi-ken, some two hours away from Tokyo.

She first entered Japan in 1995 but was arrested in 2003 for using a different name.

After being given parole after two months in prison, Marina came back to the Philippines. But after eight months, she tried her luck once more in Japan -- until her second arrest in January 2006.

Though initially sentenced to three years and four months in jail, Marina was eventually granted a second parole by a Japanese court for her good behavior.

All in all, the mother of four worked 13 years as an illegal alien in Japan after her husband, who worked as a carpenter in Japan, was forced to come home because of an accident.

"It's so hard to be away in a strange land, far away from your loved ones.. But I had to endure everything for their sake, to send them to school. I knew what would happen when I entered Japan ilegally, pero nilakasan ko na lang ang loob ko (but I steeled myself)," Marina told the Inquirer.

She would occasionally get letters from her children, to which she would reply and tell them not to worry about her.

Marina was particularly proud of her eldest son, Jeric, and keeps her son's articles, which were published in the Inquirer, with much pride.

Her other children were also doing well in school -- Jacky 20, completed a nursing degree at the Far Eastern University in 2007, while Jay-R, 16 and Jervee, 12, finished high school and elementary. But she missed attending any of their graduations.

Jeric even ran and won as a municipal councilor in Hagonoy, Bulacan.

Jeric died while on the way to check a reported burglary in their neighborhood.

News of Jeric's death in a motorcycle accident on November 13, 2007, was relayed to her by the Philippine Embassy in Japan on December 6.

"I was very sad.. I could only send letters, but no money to help my family at that time," she recalled.

Marina still finds it hard to accept the fact that her son died while she was away.

"It's hard to come to terms with (his death). I couldn't help but cry when I saw his name on the tombstone," she said.

Marina said she would not go back to Japan.

"I have no plans of going back. Maybe I will reopen a small store I used to have in Hagonoy. I just want to be with my family now," she added.


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grazie7y

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Re: Tragedy on top of tragedy for an illegal OFW in Japan
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2008, 04:08:40 PM »
Sad stories like this really make me cry. :'(

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