01/03/2008 | 03:47 PM
The Filipino seamen killed in an explosion during an attack by militants in Port Harcourt, Nigeria on Dec. 19 will be entitled to all the benefits due as a member of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, the agency’s administrator assured on Thursday.
OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque said the Department of Foreign Affairs has verified that Vito Cruz, an electrician for MT KENO tanker, was updated in his dues. Being so, his beneficiaries will be entitled to a P200,000 accident insurance and P20,000 burial assistance. These are in addition to the benefits from his Makati-based manning agency, SeaGem.
“He is an OWWA member so he will get all the necessary benefits from us," Roque said in a telephone interview.
His beneficiaries will also be provided with livelihood assistance and possible educational assistance for his children who are below 21 years old.
Cruz was the lone fatality in a fire that hit the MT KENO tanker at dawn on Dec. 19 in Port Harcourt, River State due to the attack by the militants that reached the vessel, causing its oil tank to explode.
His colleagues were taken to the Presidential Hotel for temporary refuge. But on New Year’s Eve, the militants attacked another police precinct near the hotel, leaving the Filipino crew trapped inside.
The DFA identified the the 18 trapped seamen as Tomas Obial, Cesar Guadalupe, Nestor Barba, Pancho Lagutan, Edgar Ballesteros, Melchor Malana, Elmer Temblor, Simeon Avilla, William Prosia, James Panaguiton, Jozane Ponce, Ronald Padasas, Richard Peniano, Manual Tabang, Alfonso Zarate, Frankie Viacrucis, Nino Luengas and Alvin Jovellano.
Under the Seafarers Act, Filipino seamen are also covered by the international rules on protection and indemnity insurance during cases of accidents and deaths.
Claro Cristobal, DFA spokesman said in a separate interview said the remains of Cruz may not yet be repatriated this week along with the 18 other seamen trapped in a hotel in River State because the documents for his repatriation may not be completed.
DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr said Wednesday evening that arrangements were being done for the homecoming of the 18 trapped Filipinos on Friday. They were supposed to have been moved out of the Presidential Hotel in Port Harcourt Wednesday night.
M/T Keno was manned by an all-Filipino crew. The vessel was docked in Port Harcourt when a jetty fire caused by the militants’ attack reached M/T Keno, resulting in the explosion of its tank. - Marie S. Neri, GMANews.TV
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Topic: Seaman killed in Nigeria to get OWWA benefits (Read 984 times)